


A Destined Soul

by DiscoEndymion9



Category: Half-Life, Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Aliens, Character Death, F/M, Minor Violence, Mystery, Romance, The Underground (Undertale), VERY minor PTSD, Xen - Freeform, black mesa, possible mentions of sex
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-02
Updated: 2020-05-28
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:15:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 57,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23438302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DiscoEndymion9/pseuds/DiscoEndymion9
Summary: Rise and Shine Corporal Shephard... Rise and shine....After Defeating the Gene Worm, Corporal Adrian Shephard is given a new task by the cryptic Gman. His objective? To collect the six human SOUL's from the monster King, by any means necessary. At the same time Frisk goes "missing" during a genocide run and the timeline is reset once again. Chara, however, gets a short, and bloody vision of Shephard's journey through Black Mesa from a unknown entity. The two are then forced together to navigate the Underground, but not everyone is ignorant of this new Opposing Force that’s just emerged. The Underground, and later, the Surface will never be the same.
Relationships: Chara Dreemurr/Adrian Shephard
Comments: 6
Kudos: 18





	1. Prologue

One would think that after countless battles, genocides, and resets that Frisk would be used to anything by now. With the discovery of magic monsters living beneath Mt. Ebott, finding out you have control over time (to a certain degree) with the power of your soul, to the countless times she had killed the entirety of the Underground, that nothing would surprise her.

But apparently, even after all of that, the universe is still able to throw something new her way.

She was just about to finished another Genocide when it happened. She felt the familiar sensation of one of San's blasters tearing through her soul. But instead of opening her eyes to Judgement Hall for the millionth time, she found herself in what she calls the Void.

No light illuminates the endless darkness that stretches on for who knows how long. Despite the lack of illumination, her body is still completely visible. One can still see her purple sweater with two magenta stripes going across it horizontally. Brown shorts and boots can still be seen along with her brown shoulder length hair.

This however is not unusual. She has been here countless times before. Whether it was to confront Gaster, Asriel's God form, or to bicker with Chara. No. What's new is the _thing_ standing in front of her.

At first glance it looks like a human, but she's gone through too much to fall for a trick like that. It's _unnaturally_ green eyes and the it's stillness gives away the fact that this standing right in front of her is not Human. Thin and around 6 ft tall, the _thing_ looks like your typical business man you would see on the surface. A fancy grey blue suit with a black tie, along with a thin white briefcase in it's right hand. The face, adorned with wrinkles, has an ever present smile. A smile she was all too familiar with.

But all this brings up so many questions. Is it Gaster, or even Chara, trying to trick her? Is it some monster she hasn't met, Somehow hiding away within the Void? Or is it something else entirely, something _new_?

Not liking to be left in the dark, the corrupted child of the underground gets into a fighting stance, ready to attack at a moment's notice. Frisk is about to speak up when the human creature beat her to it.

" _Well. Well. Well, For someone who has brought down a civilization so many times, one would think that she would be more perceptive of her... surroundings."_

Confused at both the way it speaks, as the creature seems to put stress on the wrong syllables, and the meaning of its words, Frisk looks at her hand to notice her knife is _**gone**_.

" _I took the liberty of… Relieving you of all of your weaponry, as you won't be needing them as of now."_

"What are you, and what do you want?" Frisk asked with as much force as she could muster, adamant for a way to get this all over with.

" _Ah right to the point I see? Well I'll skip the pleasantries then. I've been overlooking you for some time now, and I must say I am most certainly impressed by your actions. For someone so young to eradicate an entire species, and with nothing more than a few toys, knives and some determination… well, you can see why I've taken an interest. However, my… eh... employers, along with myself, are worried that you might pose a threat to future projects."_

"Projects? What projects? And who are these 'employers'?" Was the only thing Frisk could say. This is too much like her time with Gaster.

" _Why that is none of your concerns. All you need to know is that the power you have right now, can bring unwanted attention to some valuable assets"_ The figure proceeds to dust off nonexistent dust from his shoulder

"You know of the resets then." Frisk said, tensing up.

" _While of course. I'm here for that reason in fact."_ The figure pauses and after a second continues. " _My employers do not take pleasure in any… loose ends._

Taking a step back, Frisk prepares for a fight.

" _However, my employers and I see much potential for you and have asked me to ask for your… services, in exchange for your"_ he pauses, " _abilities."_

As an answer, Frisk launches a SOUL BULLET at the supposed businessman, only to be surprised when it completely fazes through him. Not bounce off him, or break upon some shield, or even show any sign of affecting it.

" _Well, as it seems you have already 'um… made up your mind."_

Suddenly a burst of pain materializes in Frisk's chest which quickly spreads throughout her entire being, causing her to fall onto the nonexistent ground.

With a thought, Frisk brings up her 'Save File' and taps on her last save.

Only for nothing to happen.

Fear spreads faster than the pain enveloping her body, allowing her to glimpse back up at her presumed attacker.

Only to find her Soul hovering above the _thing's_ open palm.

" _I am most disappointed in your decision making skills Ms. Frisk. I thought someone as talented as yourself would not hesitate to choose the right option. But it is not completely unexpected._

Her soul, along with her 'Save File' fly towards the _thing's_ briefcase and faze into it.

A rectangular tear opens up in the void and behind the Soul stealer. Nothing can be seen beyond it other than a bright white light. _It_ turns around and walks to the tear in the void, but before the thing can enter, _it_ turns back to her and suddenly ask a question that reminds her of her first genocide.

" _You were never in control in the first place, were you?"_

Not able to answer, Frisk can only look on with tears in her eyes as the _thing_ turns around and heads for the opening. Tears stream down her cheeks as her past sins come slamming into her. Suddenly, she realizes - in her what she is sure her final moments - what she has become.

' _What have I become?'_

Her eyes slowly close as the pain overloads her senses. Collapsing on the floor, Frisk can only look out into the void as the tear closes in on itself before her vision fades.

And for the last time, darkness overtakes Frisk's Vision.

* * *

**Subject:**

**Candidate #17**

**Status:**

**TERMINATED**

**Rationale:**

**Subject demonstrated keen ability but was mentally unfit for employment.**

**Postscript:**

**Subject #01**

**EXTRACTED**

**Subject #03**

**HIRED**

**Subject #07**

**DETAINED**

**Subject #12**

**TERMINATED**

**All other subjects dismissed.**

**...**

**Reevaluating Subject #07**

**Reevaluation complete**

**...**

**Subject #07**

**Status:**

**Released**

**Awaiting further orders.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story has been on Fanfiction.Net for a while now, however after a few months of contenplation, I decided to upload it here as well. Mostly because I can upload my SFM's here. I have a cover for this, but that was made using a bunch of pictures that don't belong to me, so that instead I'm no real cover. 
> 
> Now, for those who have just arrived, Hello, and welcome to my second fic, you have chosen (or have been chosen) to read this bizarre crossover. Now here are a few things you should know before you continue.
> 
> First off, yes, Adrian has been age-shifted by two years, don't judge me.
> 
> There will be very few end notes I'm just uploading something that's been done for months.
> 
> The events of Half Life in this fic take place in 2019, not 1998 like the original game. Other then that, there little else you need to know.


	2. Visions

_'thoughts'_

"Speech"

_**"Other"** _

* * *

Being forced back in time is not a pleasant feeling, and Chara can attest to that. Of course this is assuming you can live that experience, most can't.

It's as if something is trying to forcefully make you forget everything after the last SAVE POINT. However, if your someone like Chara, the sensation is little more than an insignificant headache.

This time is different.

Something just _feels_ off. She can't really describe it accurately. It's just different, and that is a problem.

After what, hundreds, _thousands,_ of RESETS, one would think that Chara Dreemurr would know everything about the Underground, about the strange power that keeps her in this never ending hell.

Apparently not.

So she wasn't too surprised when she opens her eyes and see that she's not in Judgment hall, but some darkly lit metal corridor lined with consoles and other miscellaneous materials. Of course the surprise is still there because something like this has never happened before. Not when Frisk first fell into the Underground, not when she got to the barrier, not after her first reset, not after the Genocide, and not when she regained some measure of "morality."

Not wanting to dwell on the past, Chara moves down the hallway, with each step echoing throughout the passageway.

After a short walk, Chara freezes.

A few feet in front of her is a small pool of blood. That sets off multiply alarm bells in her head, as the only people who bleed in the Underground are Frisk and Sans; everyone else simply turns to dust after they take to much damage.

Now more wary, Chara continues until she finds a large mechanical door blocking her path, with a button to the right of it. Pressing the button causes the door to slowly open upwards into the ceiling, allowing light to flood in and temporarily blinding her.

Opening her eyes Chara prepares to continue walking only to stop in pure shock.

Ahead of her is an enclosed walkway leading to identical mechanical door as the one she just opened. The walkway gives her a view of what's outside of her current residence.

A very large desert can be seen below, along with two cliff sides that the walkway she's currently on connects.

Chara pays no attention to this.

Instead her focus is on the clear blue sky above.

' _I'm on the fucking_ _ **SURFACE.**_ '

A million different thoughts go through her head, causing her to almost pass out from the flow of information going through her head.

' _This isn't real, this isn't real'_ she tries to assure herself.

" _ **It was Real~"**_

On the verge of a panic attack, Chara jumps from the inhuman voice inside her head.

'Who are you, what is this place?'

" _ **Slaves. We are Slaves~"**_

The sound of _gunfire,_ a sound Chara have not heard since she watched that action movie when she was still alive in the Underground, interrupts her before she can respond.

Suddenly she moves towards the other side of the catwalk, not of her own free will, but automatically, like someone is controlling her. Now the door stands right in front of her, with the sound of battle coming from beyond it.

Unable to move back, Chara slowly brings her hand to the button and presses it.

After what felt like an eternity, the door finally opens revealing what's on the other side.

Humans. All dead, killed by either bullet wounds and or blunt force trauma. Blood and entrails cakes the entire hallway.

The humans are all wearing pitch black uniforms sporting armor protecting their vital organs. Goggles can be seen on all of the dead spec ops, with rifles and pistols scattered around the floor, or in some cases still in there dying grips.

Chara has seen blood, Frisk has been killed more times than she can count, weather it be from impalement, laser's, magic, or any other attack thrown at her. But this is on a completely new scale. There's just so much. It almost makes her sick. Sure their humans, but the sight still give off bad vibes.

" _ **This was where it began... This is where ..."**_

A new figure can be seen walking through the bloodshed.

Covered in blood, garbage, and so many other things that she can't put a name to, the new figure looks a lot more like a soldier you would see in those action movies she used to watch. With a slim vest covering his entire torso, tied up combat boots, and wearing a green camouflage uniform. A tool wrench is gripped in one hand, and a large pistol in the other.

The most striking detail however, is the head.

A gas mask with green lenses and a helmet cover his face, leaving only his neck and black hair visible.

A groan is heard from below Chara's feet. One of the humans is still alive.

" _ **We are all slaves,"**_

The soldier walks up to the dying man, and aims his pistol at the person below him.

" _ **But he will set us FREE."**_

* * *

A loud bang is heard before Chara's vision fades to black.

In a never ending void, a V-22 Osprey flies forward with an unwilling occupant.

It's been an hour since Adrian Shephard beat the giant worm that threatened all of Black Mesa. It's been an hour since the nuclear warhead went off, killing everyone except him. It's been an hour since that _businessman_ placed him on this never ending flight.

And in that time, Shephard has had nothing to do, but remember everything.

His life as an orphan, the time he joined the marines, The Livonian "incident", the death of all of his squadmates, Training for the HECU, and finally, Black Mesa. So much, in so little time.

He's 19 for fucks sake and he probably has the highest kill count of any US soldier in history if you count inter-dimensional aliens.

It doesn't matter now. He stuck because some teleporting, lawyer thinks he's too much trouble.

And as if on cue, the cockpit door open to reveal a swirling ball of green energy with the same "man" from an hour ago walking through.

"Corporal Shephard, we meet again. I apologize for the long wait, I simply had other...eh loose ends."

If he could, Shephard would get up and punch the bastard, scream at him, anything. But he can't, for something stops him from being able to move, to speak.

He can only listen.

"I do however bring news that you will find… delightful. For you see, my employers have a task that needs to be done, and well, I thought that you would be the perfect choice for completing said task, and they agreed."

The lone HECU soldier stays silent, glaring at the _thing_ in front of him, for that's all he can do.

"The task, should you choose to accept it, is to bring to us six items of high value to my employers, as they've been creating some… distractions."

The thing brings it's hand up, a cartoon-ish shaped heart hovering over it.

"To acquire these items, you must go through several um… obstacles. How you deal with these… challenges is up to you. I assure you that this will be quite an easy assignment for someone of your caliber."

The force holding Adrian down is suddenly gone. Noticing this, the soldier stands. Nodding to the monster disguised as a man, as doing anything else would simply be futile.

"I knew you would make the right choice."

He steps aside, heart still hovering above his hand.

Adrian Shephard, walks towards the green ball of energy coming from the cockpit door.

Looking back to the inter-dimensional businessman, only to see that damn smirk that it always have..

Before he can take another step, the monster speaks.

"Till we meet again Corporal, and remember to… stay determined throughout your travels." The thing chuckles.

So Adrian, hoping there will be something on the other side to get him out of this hell, walks through the portal, causing everything to flash green and then suddenly darkness.

"Rise and Shine Corporal Shephard... Rise and Shine."


	3. Reunion

' _Thoughts'_

"Speech"

_"Radio"_

" **Other/Unknown"**

* * *

Darkness.

No sensation, no indication that she's even alive, or as alive as a ghost can be.

Suddenly, without any warning, the sound of someone speaking through a radio assualts her hearing.

_"Okay Goose 7, Proceed to sector 1-1 to LZ and rendezvous with Alpha-Bravo-Tango. Over."_

_"Copy that HQ."_

' _What the hell?'_

The chatter is so distant, yet it sounds like it's coming from all around her.

_"Watch your vector Goose 3, it's getting pretty tight in here."_

_"Goose 3 Copies."_

_"Anyone got a good view of the LZ yet?"_

_"Negative Goose 7, I can see some activity up there, but I can't tell what it is."_

The sound of a vehicle flying by comes from the last radio call, it's faint, but Chara can still make it out.

_**ZZZZZZZZZZ** _

_***STATIC*** _

" _Holy shit! Goose 3 is down, Goose 3 is down!"_

More chatter can be heard all around her, louder and more panicked.

_"SHIT, were going down!"_

" _This is Bravo team, requesting air support on my position Now!"_

_"Look at the size of that thing..."_

Chaos, that's what Chara hears. The sound of gunfire, of a rhythmic buzzing, and explosions all come together to create a symphony of destruction.

_"Pull back, pull back!"_

_"Medic!"_

_"Please god no."_

_"I don't want to-"_

_"Foehammer just went down, I repeat, Foehammer just got hit by-"_

More and more people are added to the collection of voices, barely recognizable as coherent sentences. It all sounds like a collection of shouting, and screaming to Chara. It's sheer volume almost deafening.

_"Please, I'm with the science team!"_

_"TAKE. COVER."_

One message can be heard over the rest however.

_"Forget about Freeman! We are cutting out loses and pulling out. Anyone left behind is on his own. Repeat, if you weren't already you are on your…"_

Silence.

If Chara could, she would breathe a sigh of relief. The endless chatter was somewhat terrifying. Screams are not alien to her, Frisk and her have caused all of Monster kind to collectively panic, hundred of times in fact, but it the amount of different voices - the cause of the chaos that was happening on the other side of the "radio", - that both intrigued and scared her.

_"Shephard, you've made it. I take it you didn't find Freeman? Forget it Corporal. We are pulling out. The air strikes have already commenced. Get to the hangar while we await for evac."_

The feeling of stone against her boots causes Chara to open her eyes.

The scene is very familiar. A large open space, with a flowerbed in the middle. Light can be seen coming in from a large opening far above the bundle of tulips.

All of this is familiar. She's played out this scenario a thousand times before. Frisk would fall in, go through the Underground, and RESET. Rinse and repeat. There is one thing that's strange this time however.

' _Where is Frisk?'_

Indeed, Frisk is nowhere to be found. A troubling aspect, as Frisk's DETERMINATION is the only thing that keeps Chara "alive." Without it, she won't be able to keep herself going.

If Frisk was here, then Chara would simply "teleport" or be pushed in her direction, as they are unable to be separated.

Yet, somehow, they are.

' _What the hell is going on?'_

Question and more questions. That all she seems to be receiving recently and it frustrates Chara to no end.

Suddenly, a swirling green ball of energy appears above the flower bed. Small arches of lightning emerge from the sphere, destroying some of the tulips.

Chara can only stare at the strange phenomenon curiously. The sphere itself is something she's never seen before.

At first, one would think it's magic, but Chara has never witnessed anyone who can conjure up spheres of green energy, and she has seen what every single monster in the Underground can do.

The sphere suddenly expands, until it's about as large as the flower bed it hover above.

Then, with a sudden * _crack*_ it's gone.

And in its place is the same soldier from that vision.

* * *

The first thing that Adrian felt when he emerged from the portal was different from his last experience. Instead of the feeling of falling, or even landing on solid ground, that he's been accustomed to, Shephard lands back first on something surprisingly soft.

' _Well this is new.'_

Getting himself up, the lone HECU soldier takes in his current surroundings.

The area he finds himself in is very open. Walls and pillars surround him and the pile of tulips he landed on. Sunlight comes from a large opening above the flowerbed, illuminating both Shephard and the room. The patch of tulips he landed on are in pretty bad shape, with some being burnt to a crisp and others crushed by his weight when he fell. Ahead of him is a long hallway chiseled from stone.

With his observations done, Adrian moves onto inventory.

The first thing he notices is the familiar weight of his knife, Desert Eagle, and his M4 on his person. This prompts Adrian to check himself for ammo. Surprisingly, the _lawyer_ never took his ammo from Black Mesa before taking him.

So that leaves him with 2 extra magazines for the M4, not counting the one already in the weapon, one 40mm grenade, and 4 magazines for the deagle. However he still has the ammo that he's collected from his journey through Black Mesa. So plenty of 12 gauge shells, one clip of 7.62 from his sniper, and one belt of SAW ammo.

This proves to be a problem, as he currently has no way to properly utilize most of the ammo he has on him without some of his weapons. He'll keep it all for right now, as it's possible he might come across weapons that might take the same type of ammo. It would be quite annoying for him to leave all that ammo only to find that a weapon for which he can use the ammo for.

Satisfied Shephard, checks his surroundings once more.

' _Nothing new so far, no aliens, no cloaked spec-ops, nothing.'_

The rustling coming from the pile of tulips interrupts his thoughts, prompting him to grab his rifle and aim it at said pile.

Hissing and rattling can be heard from the flowerbed, causing Adrian to approach it slowly and with his M4 at the ready.

Right in front of where the commotion is coming from, Shephard quickly pulls back the patch of tulips…

And taking on the full force of a shockroach jumping straight into his chest.

A little dazed from the sheer force of the jump Adrian, barely has time to prepare for the green mass that launches itself at him, causing him to take a step back lest he fall over.

Finally recovered from the sudden shock, Adrian speaks up for the first time since Black Mesa.

"Spitball? Sparkie? Is that really you?"

When Adrian first meet Sparkie, he almost had a panic attack. As an alien beetle latching onto your arm tends would do. However, he soon learned that the little guy was pretty docile, and was more than willing to shoot it's new partners enemies with lethal balls of electricity. While he isn't exactly "cute" by most people's standards, Shephard has grown attached to his tiny beetle like body.

Spitball on the other hand was picked up more out of pity than anything else. In fact, Shephard was tempted to leave the little guy - who was actually pretty big, almost the size of Shephard's forearm - but decided to pick him up after he heard the creature whining. It was later learned that Spitball was actually a baby of the over sized bug creatures that used other "Sparkies" as weapons.

The Three of them have become something close to a family, with Shephard as the parent, Spitball the innocent child, (or as innocent as one can be when blowing apart members of your own kind and dozens of unfortunate spec ops) and Sparkie as the aggressive older brother with a soft side for his family.

These guys have lasted longer than any fellow marine in all of Shephard's Career.

Not wanting to dwell on that particular thought, Adrian notices the object lying on the ground where the two aliens where.

A pipe wrench.

The same pipe wrench from Black Mesa in fact. Still dented and covered in both human and alien blood.

Attaching it to his backpack, Adrian notices that his two companions are looking over his shoulder, hissing and growling.

Quickly, Adrian turns around, M4 in his grip, and faces the possible adversary.

Only to stare at the red eyes of a teenager.


	4. New Squad

"Speech"

' _Thoughts'_

" _ **Past speech"**_

" _other"_

* * *

Chara will admit, she didn't expect much from the soldier. Understandable since her first experience with him was in a vision that showed him slaughter over a dozen black clad humans and merciless execute a wounded man that was no threat to him. So it's understandable that her first impression was that he was a psychotic murderer. That thought was then later reinforced when the unnamed soldier appeared with a gun; an actual gun, in the Underground!

So imagine Chara's surprise, when he starts to _pet,_ and _nuzzle_ two strange looking creatures - creatures that are definitely not found on the Overworld. So here she is, watching a possible psycho playing around with what must be monsters, she doesn't have the best view of them after all.

"Spitball? Sparkie? Is that really you?"

The voice that comes from the soldier is, again, unexpected. Chara imagined a grizzled veteran with a hoarse voice that would put the king on a sick day to shame, but instead she hears someone who can't be over 20, maybe closer to her age. Odd, considering how many she's seen him kill. Although, it's possible that the person she saw in the vision wasn't actually him. Soldiers, from what she remembers at least, tend to wear the same uniform and gear. That doesn't explain the blood however, but then again, he's a soldier, soldiers kill.

Especially humans soldiers.

The still unnamed soldier stops playing with his pets for a few seconds to pick up something from Chara's flowery grave. Chara, not able to get a good view, takes a few steps closer to see what he's holding. A sudden chill goes down Chara ghostly spine once she spots it.

A pipe wrench. The same pipe wrench from the vision. The once red tool meant for fixing and disassembly now spots numerous dents and splotches of blood, along with some other green substance that covers some of the soldiers uniform and armor.

One of the creatures climbs over his shoulder, giving her a good view of it. The thing is, well hard to describe. With three long claw-like appendages coming from the end of it's beetle like body. Said appendages surround a 'tube' for lack of a better word. Chara can only guess that's it some type of mouth, or maybe an eye since she can't see anything else on it that looks like eyes.

The other creature, this one green, slithers its way around the soldier's arm. A large lipless mouth full of large pointed teeth greet Chara. Again, no eyes are visible. It's body splits into three large tentacles around the back, which its currently using to latch onto the soldiers forearm. The creature, looks in her direction before it starts to hiss. The blue one follows along by producing some rattling noise in her direction. Sparks of electricity, or something similar to, bend around it's three appendages.

They've spotted her.

' _That should be impossible though. No one but frisk can see me.'_

The noise must have alerted the soldier, because he instantly turns around and trained his rife on her. Again, this only adds to Chara confusion. In all of her time in the Underground, the only person to have ever seen her was Frisk, and that's only because it's her DETERMINATION that allows her to exist. So it should be impossible for him to see her unless…

She has to get answers, and he's the only one who has them. That means questioning

' _Well, I guess introduction are in order. Too bad it had to happen so soon.'_

So with a winning smile, Chara introduces herself.

"Greetings, I'm Chara."

* * *

' _Honestly, after everything I've been through, this is probably the best I've could of asked for.'_

While Shpehard wasn't expecting a red eyed civie to greet him, it isn't the worst case scenario. Much better than being greeted by Black Ops, aliens, or some other abomination from beyond

The civie, Chara, seems to be a bit young. Probably around 17, maybe 18. A large lime green sweater with a single white horizontal line is the second thing Shephard notices; the first being the eyes of course. Brown shoulder length hair, and a necklace with a heart shaped locket attached to it hangs from her neck is the next thing he spots. Large black pants and black shoes cover the lower half of her body. The last detail that he notices, is her extremely pale skin. Her face is almost completely white, with the only color coming from her natural blush, her lips, and her red eyes.

' _Just like the aliens.'_

So all in all, not the strangest thing. Other then the skin and eyes, she seems pretty normal. Now knowing this, Adrian lowers his M4. As if they sense their master's intent, Sparky and Spitball both immediately stop their rattling and hissing, instead opting to simply stare at the girl in front of them.

"Nice to meet you Chara, I'm Corporal Shephard of the US Marine Corp, HECU. Hey, you wouldn't know a way out of this place would ya? Preferable back to the surface?"

Chara, simply stares at him with confusion dotting visible in her eyes, before she blinks said confusion away and with a sudden glare, answers.

"Well, Adrian, I do happen to know the way out, but your going to have to tell me how you got here in the first place."

This causes Shephard to pause, as he contemplates his response. Telling her that he just came from a top secret government facility that got overrun by interdimensional aliens wouldn't be the best idea. Even in the off chance that she did believe him, then that just puts her life, along with any family, in danger from the US government. He rather not put someone else's life in jeopardy. But then what does he tell her? There's no entry point beyond the large hole above the flowerbed, so he would have to make up a lie based around that.

With cover story in the making, Adrian answers.

"I fell. My unit and I were patrolling around the area when we found this large opening. We passed it, paying it no mind, when I fell in. Since I was in the back, no one heard me fall, nor did I have time to radio for help."

' _The lack of intel really makes lying a pain in the ass. That should satisfy her for now. Hopefully.'_

Chara, with her lips curl upwards, tilts her head and continue to speak.

"Really? Because I do recall seeing you appear out of bright green ball of energy. It could be my imagination, but I think the monsters on your shoulder and the burnt up tulips tell me otherwise."

' _Well shit.'_

Now with that plan gone awry, Shephard tries to quickly think of an excuse. Not that he can. Determination, and adrenaline from Black Mesa, are the only things keeping him upright. It's been nothing but non-stop fighting for two days. His brain is essential on auto pilot.

Seeing that she's obviously stunned the soldier, Chara starts to balance herself on the soles of her feet and speaks up once again. Interrupting any thoughts going through his head.

"Well Shephard, it seems I've caught you with your pants down. Now, maybe this time, you tell me what _actually_ happened."

Her eyes, once a bright red, are now simply devoid of all color, as if the void had replaced them.

Now on edge, Adrian brings up his M4. Not facing her, but still in her general direction. She definitely not a civie. The goop seeping out of her eye sockets, and the almost casual tone show that very clearly. But that just raises more questions, like _what_ is she. Chara doesn't even seem bothered by the gun aimed in her direction, nor the two aliens on his shoulders. So what does he do now?

"I'm waiting Shephard."

With nothing else to fall back on, Adrian does the only thing his sleep deprived mind can think of. Tell her the truth. Or at least, some of it, not like he'll get in trouble for it, he's most likely a wanted man anyways since he did witness what happened at Black Mesa.

"I fell into a portal after killing some aliens and saving the world."

Silence. It's as if time just decided to suddenly stop. It it went on like this for what felt like an eternity; even Sparkie, who always loves to make a ruckus was silent. Chara simply stared at him with her lack of real eyes. Then finally, Chara eyes reverse back to her original state before she starts to chuckle. Before long the chuckle evolves into full blown laughter. After a few seconds of laughing however, she simply smiles at Shephard, before speaking up.

"You know what, that not the weirdest thing I've heard. Doesn't mean I believe you however."

"Well that's what happened."

Chara doesn't look convinced. Sighing, Chara simply lets it go.

"Okay then Shepha-"

Adrian interrupts her.

"So what are you?"

Smiling, Chara replies with the sauveiness of a politician.

"What do you mean?"

Adjusting his grip on the M4, Adrian repeats his earlier question.

"What are you? You're not human, because last time I checked, humans don't leak goop out of their eyes. So unless I've been missing out on some new fashion trend, I think I can safely assume your not human."

The girl smiles grow even larger.

"My, aren't you the observant one. Well, to answer your question, I'm a ghost, held together by the DETERMINATION of ones Soul. That Soul, being you of course."

* * *

If there is one thing that Sans knows about the Underground and the power of Frisk Resets, it's that things never change. No matter how many times the kid reset, their always be some form of pattern to follow. Frisk would wake up in the Ruins, run into Toriel, make it out of the Ruins and come through Snowdin, and go through the rest of the Underground. Sure Frisk might try to deviate from the normal path once in a while, but she'll always find her way to Judgement Hall. The only difference is the kill count she racks up on her journey. When that happens, Sans and her would fight, and she would win, no matter how many times her Soul is destroyed.

So imagine when, instead of finding himself in Judgement Hall, about to face off against the demon child, he finds himself laying down on his bed at home. Now _this_ is new. The only explanation for him being back here that he can think of, is that Frisk was able Reset. Now that should be impossible. The only time Frisk can Reset is when she reaches the Barrier, never has she been able to Reset _before_ that. If she could, she would have done it along time ago, but alas, she never has.

Getting up from his bed, Sans heads downstairs to the noise of his brother, Papyrus, burning pasta; a noise that never gets old, even after all this time. If there is one thing that Sans will always look forwards to, it's his brother.

Even if she cuts him down.

Not wanting to dwell on that particular thought, Sans enter the kitchen.

"Sup bro"

Sans and Papyrus are quite literally polar opposites. Sans is short, standing at a little over 5 feet, while his brother towers at an impressive 7,1. Sans is considered lazy, Papyrus on the other hand is considered motivated, energetic, but irresponsible- although Sans feels like that last one is unfair.

Turning around, the younger yet taller, skeleton turns to greet his brother, completely ignoring the burning spaghetti and meatballs.

"GOOD MORNING SLEEPY HEAD! I DECIDED TO MAKE US SOME BREAKFAST SINCE YOU WEREN'T WAKING UP!"

While some would cringe at the intense volume of Papyrus voice, Sans simply takes it in strides. He's lived with him for his entire life and then some with the Resets. Maybe once upon a time he would have been annoyed at his brother constant yelling, the Resets have taught him to cherish his time with Papyrus, because in all honesty, it's the only constant in his life keeping him going.

"Thanks bro. Hey, has anything new popped up concerning your goal of becoming Captain of the Royal Guard?

Sans didn't need to ask that. Again, the resets have allowed him to 'predict' the future in a sense. Despite the fact that she changed the time in which she reset, he knows for a fact that Frisk will still enter the Underground. He knows that she'll eventually end up murdering everyone, and he knows that Papyrus will simply be tasked with patrolling Snowdin like usual.

"ACTUALLY, THEIR IS! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS HAVE BEEN TASKED WITH GUARDING THE ENTRYWAY TO THE DUMP. UNDYNE SAID THAT THERE BEEN POSSIBLE REPORTS OF A NEW MONSTER!"

Now _this_ is new. Now normally, finding a new species of Monster is not unheard of. There are plenty of Monster down in the Underground. So while most have been documented, there are still some that haven't been properly reported. There mostly small, insect-like monsters, nothing sentient. So hearing that there has been sightings of a new Monster, while rare, isn't unheard of. It also could be an animal since it is in the Dump, a place where some small critters tend to get in from.

That was before the Reset, before Frisk, and subsequently Sans, have seen every single Monster of Monsterkind. So, combined with the fact that this has _never_ happened before, Sans it starting to worry. Not once in Frisk rampage through the Underground did something like this ever happen. So already, two new things that have previously never happened before, suddenly happen.

"Oh, really? What does it look like?"

"NO ONE KNOWS. JUST SOME STRANGE NOISES, BUT I'M SURE WHATEVER IT IS, I'LL FIND IT, BEFRIEND IT, AND REPORT IT IN! THAN, UNDYNE WILL SEE HOW BRAVE I AM AND PROMOTE ME TO CAPTAIN OF THE ROYAL GUARD. ONCE THAT DONE, EVERYONE WILL LOVE ME AND WANT TO BE MY FRIEND!"

"I'm sure they will Paps. Anyways, I kinda have to get to my post. Don't want to be late for work."

Papyrus jaw is simply hanging loose.

"YOUR GOING TO WORK EARLY? BUT YOU NEVER GO EARLY."

"Well, don't want to be _skulling_ around now? Eh Paps?"

Papyrus, as if unable to speak, simply stares at his older brother. Seeing this, Sans turns around and heads for the living room.

"Welp, I'm heading out. Can't dillydally now."

Stumped out of his stupor, Papyrus quickly speaks up before Sans can leave.

"WAIT! DO YOU WANT SOME SPAGHETTI BEFORE YOU GO?"

A quick glance to the raging inferno that is said spaghetti gives Sans his answer.

"No thanks. I had a burger before I went to sleep. However, I would appreciate it if you could pass me the ketchup."

Still in a state of shock, Papyrus gives the bottle of ketchup to Sans before turning around to deal with the fire hazard that his breakfast has become.

Walking into the living room, Sans continues out the door, not before glancing at the calendar. Not for any particular reason of course as, again, the Resets keep the date the same. At least in the Underground.

The bottle of ketchup fall onto the ground, spilling its contents all over the floor and his slippers. But Sans pays that no minds.

For his attention is only on the calendar.

' _That wasn't like that before.'_

* * *

The stone hallway didn't lead far. In fact, Shephard only had to walk a few feet before he came upon the next room. Like the last one, it was quite spacious, with enough room to comfortably fit two Abrams tanks side by side. However that's were the similarities ended, as this room has no stone columns or flowerbed. Instead it has a single patch of grass in the middle of the room with a large flower growing out of it. Finally on the other side is a doorway with a fountain.

With Chara by his side Shephard continues to walk forward, sweeping the room for any possible hostiles, while also thinking back to what Chara said earlier.

The Underground, home of Monsterkind. Described by Chara as friendly, abiet powerful with the use of magic, - a concept that Shephard still has trouble believing. Apparently they've been trapped here after a war with the humans on the surface. Chara has also given him his current location. Good news, he still on Earth, in fact, he still in the US. Virgina to be exact, underneath Mt. Ebott in the Appalachians. Bad news, the Monsters need seven Souls to get break out of a magical barrier that keeps them all down here. And one more has just happen to teleport onto their front yard.

However, the businessman's words come back to Shephard head.

" _ **The task, should you choose to accept it, is to bring to us six items of high value to my employers,"**_

' _So that why the bastard sent me here, to retrieve the SOUL's.'_

Shephard can't help but scoff at the idea. A dimension hopping businessman sends a soldier to retrieve six SOUL's with the help of two aliens, and now a ghost by his sides.

' _What a time to be alive.'_ Shephard thought sarcastically.

Out of the corner of his eye, Adrian spots movement near the center of the room. Quickly, he orients himself and trains his rife where his he last saw some activity. Only to be met with the same flower he spotted earlier. It seems the movement that spooked him was actually the flower turning in his direction, showing it that it is indeed _not_ a normal flower. A large, almost cartoonish, face greets the lone HECU soldier.

Then, to make the situation even weirder, the thing _speaks._

"Howdy! I'm Flowey! Flowey the Flower!

Shephard has seen a lot of things throughout his time at Black Mesa. Alien Invasions, alternate dimensions, large mechanical robots, a large worm that shot a _fucking laser out of it's eye_ , a teleporting businessman, and a barn sized alien that shot radiation. So, he's like to think that nothing else can really surprise him. Ghost? The businessman is essentially a ghost in Adrian's book since he seems to be the only person to see him. SOUL's? He might not be a religious man but hey, he didn't believe in aliens and alternate dimensions before Black Mesa.

But a god damn talking flower? That's just a whole new level of insanity.

' _This is it, I've gone insane. After all of Black Mesa, of the LSD trip that was Xen, and after all of the fighting, my mind has finally been broken.'_

"Golly, you must be new around here. Guess it's up to lil ole me to show you the ropes. Are you ready?"

Shephard, still in a state of disbelief, doesn't answer.

"Let's go!"

A sudden itch forms in Shephard's chest.

Looking down, he can see that a large, red, cartoonish heart is hovering right in front of him. In fact, it looks like the same heart that the businessman had shown him. However with some slight differences. For one, it's a darker shade of red, almost crimson. Another difference is its size. While the one from before was about the size of his hand, this one is about ten percent bigger.

Confused, Shephard looks back at Flowey only to find him staring directly at the heart. Even Chara seems entranced by the thing.

The oversize flower then abruptly laughs a joyful laugh, before it starts to transform into something more sinister. To go along with this sudden shift in tone, Flowey's face starts to distort itself, becoming something that can only be described as demonic. Like Chara earlier, a black goop drips out of its mouth and eyes, giving the impression that it's crying. Then, it finally stops, bringing silence upon the group.

The thing smiles.

" **Oh, it's been so long since something new and exciting has happened around here. And that SOUL! So much DETERMINATION, EXP, and LOVE. Golly, not even Frisk ever got to LV 26! I bet you don't even know what's** _ **actually**_ **going on down here."**

Shephard, points his M4 right at the things demonic face, ready to end it's existence at a moments notice.

The thing suddenly frowns and continues on with it's monologue, ignoring the rife trained at it.

" **In fact, with a SOUL like that… hoho. The possibilities! "**

Out of nowhere, large flower pellets surround the lone soldier. Completely blocking his line of sight from the demonic flower.

" **I don't know who you are mister gas mask, but if there's one thing I do know…"**

It smiles

" **It's killed or be killed!"**

But before the flower can proceed, Sparkie - who has been hidden in Adrian's backpack for the entire duration - emerges and, with a sudden spark of electricity emitting from its claws, proceeds to fire a ball of super heated plasma Flowey. Staggering Flowey, and causing him to retreat underground. The pellets disappear, giving Shephard the time to breath.

After thanking his alien friend, Adrian turn to the ghost besides him.

"What the hell was that?!"

Chara turns and stares at him for a second, before replying.

"One of the monsters you'll find in the Underground."

" I thought you said they were friendly?!" Shephard responds.

The girl shrugs, "I said _most_ were friendly, not all. They do want your SOUL after all."

Sighing, the unsung hero of Black Mesa, simply shakes his head.

"Next time, give me a heads up so, you know, I don't get fucking _sliced_ open."

The girl giggles.

"No promises."

Shephard continues to glare at her before, once again, sighing.

"Where to next?"

"Just keep going forward from here. There are some puzzles and monsters up ahead, but I'll guide you through them." Chara says, smiling.

The two then proceed out of the room, and into the ruins.

Unaware of the two emerald eyes watching them from the shadows.


	5. Monsters?

"Speech"

' _Thoughts'_

" _Past speech **"**_

" _ **other** "_

* * *

Reaching the stairway at the end of the room, Adrian finds himself staring at a double set of doors. Climbing the stairs, he finds a lever, and pulls said lever. Slowly, the doors open outwards, letting him, and his new 'companion' through. Now they find themselves inside a long narrow hallway, with a two streams down near the end, which leads to another, more narrow hallway. The streams has two bridges, one with spikes coming out of them and the other just a normal bridge. Walking over the normal one, Chara stops and points to her right.

Adrian looks over and sees yet another lever, with a sign that's obviously seen better days. The marine looks back at Chara with his head turned sideways much like a dog. After a few seconds of silence, Adrian simply walks over to the spiked fill bridge.

"Hey, there's a lever right here you know."

The Corporal simply ignores her, opting to jump over the small stream instead.

Continuing forward, Adrian turns back to Chara, only to find her right behind him, causing him to raise his rife and stumble backwards. Chara giggles at the display while Shephard collects himself.

"Jesus Christ! Don't do that, for god sake I could of shot you!"

Again, Chara giggles, before replying that she's a ghost. With no answer, he turns around and heads to the hallway, grumbling to himself incoherently. After some turns, the duo reach another bridge with spikes. However, unlike the last one, there isn't a way for Adrian to jump across, so he simply walks over, or in some cases, between the waist height spikes with Chara following close behind. Crawling through the maze of over-sized spikes, the marine addresses the girl following him.

"So, you said that there are other monsters down here, right?"

The ghost phases through the spike next to him.

"Yep."

"You also said that their pretty friendly, correct?

She hums.

"But that they also want my Soul. Which means that they have to kill me."

Phrasing through yet another spike, Chara answers.

"Most will try to kill you, but less out of wanting to do so, and more of just for the sake of it. You can get by them without killing."

Now passed the bridge, the two continue on, passing a dinosaur shaped dummy. Adrian notices that the dummy is in pretty bad shape all things considered. Ignoring that fact for the moment, he continue to sweep the room for any signs of life, only to come up empty handed.

"So I don't have to fight them?"

Again, Chara once again speak, opting to hum instead.

"How sentient are these things again?" Shephard says, passing through yet another hallway identical to the last.

"Almost all of them are sentient. Some more than others." She grumbles out the last part.

Shephard doesn't hear her grumbling, instead opting to focus on clearing out the next few rooms. After a few minutes of checking every corner for possible life, Adrian turns back and heads to yet another hallway. He was expecting yet another room devoid of life, but instead he finds one of the weirdest things he's seen so far. Or at least the 10's weirdest things.

The Monster - for what else could it be - in front of him is quite simply, an oversized frog. At least it has the basic body of one. It's eyes are located on two very large bumps on the top of it head, instead of on the head itself. Another discreenable feature is the series of symbols on its chest.

" _Ribbit"_

Adrian looks over to Chara for some advice, to which she replies with a simple, "Flirt with it." Not questioning the bizarre answer, he looks back at the frog.

"I like your… um. Symbol?"

The frog actually _blushes_ , and proceeds to hope away into one of the many holes in the wall.

"I'm too tired for all of this."

Chara giggles.

* * *

Passing through yet another hallway, Shephard finds his path forward blocked by an actually _ghost._ Not a ghost like Chara, or even the Businessman, but one you would see on TV shows for kids. Somewhat transparent, the ghost currently resides right in the middle of the pathway, blocking Adrian from continuing on. What is it doing in the middle of the path?

"Zzzzzz. Are they gone yet? Zzzzzzz"

Well sleeping of course.

' _At least it talks.'_

Moving closer to the "sleeping" ghost, Adrian contemplates jumping over the creature, not wanting to go through the effort of starting a conversation. The idea is immediately dashed as he crunches some leaves under his boots, causing the Monster to turn over and face him. Upon seeing him, the ghost immediately jumps up from its resting spot with a look of fear. Now deciding it would be the best time to speak up, Adrian addresses the floating Monster.

"Hey, your kinda in the way."

The ghost slowly floats upwards away from the marine and the path, before bolting towards the ceiling and phrasing through it. Confused, Adrian looks back to Chara for clarification on what just happened.

"That was Napstablook, and while he might look like a ghost, he's actually a Monster."

"Any reason why he seemed so scared?"

Chara looks at the soldier with an expression that can only be described as annoyed before replying.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe seeing a fully armored human with enough blood on him to fill a small puddle was a little too much? Or maybe it was the gasmask with the green lenses?"

"Okay, fair enough."

The pair continue forward, only being interrupted by a few more Monster; all of which, Adrian was able to convince to leave him alone. After another few minutes of walking does the marine slow down. The adrenaline from Black Mesa and his encounter with the demonic flower has completely left his system. Leaving Adrian to experience the exhausting that been plaguing his being for so long. His entire body feels as if it's on fire, with every step adding to the pain. This change does not go unnoticed by Chara, or his alien companions on his back. Chara tells him that there's a house nearby with plenty of food and a bed for him to lay on. She also offered to carry his bag of ammo, only to find out that it's far too heavy for her.

Rounding another corner, the exhausted Adrian finds the house that Chara was talking about. It's a nice one story house. A few windows here and there, a large tree out front, and sign above the front entrance. Comfortable, but obviously has some age to it, evident by the sign that's worn away due to the passage of time. Not wasting another minute, Adrian slowly walks over to the door. Once he reaches it, Adrian extends his hand out to open it, but hesitates. He turns to his ghostly companion.

"Does anyone live here by any chance?"

Chara simply nods.

"You could of told me that before we got here."

"You seemed tired."

"Still am."

After a moment of silence, Adrian slings his rife over his back and holsters it, and take out his trusty pipe wrench. With his pipe wrench in one hand, he slowly brings up a fist, and knocks exactly three times. Almost immediately, a surprisingly gentle feminine voice calls out from the other side.

"Coming!"

A moment of silence passes, before it's immediately interrupted by the sound of someone rushing towards the door. While it might just be a mix a paranoia and lack of sleep taking a toll on him, Adrian proceeds to tighten his grip on the pipe wrench, ready to bring it down upon any enemy should the situation call for. The door opens and Shephard is met with a wall of cloth and fur. Backing up a little to get a little distance on the behemoth and a better view, he can see that the Monster in front of him some type of amphomorphic goat. Over 8 feet tall, and adorned with a simple tunic that displays some type of symbol, the Monster is surprising _human._ Five fingers, two eyes, and knees structured much like that of a human. Were it not for the snout, floppy ears, and the fur, Shephard might of just assumed it was just a _very_ large human. The Monster brings up its hands to it's mouth in a gesture of shock.

"Oh my."

Even the way it, no _she,_ gesticulate is so much like a human, Adrian thought. Another moment of silence passes, with neither side really making a move. Finally, the Monster speaks up.

"Would you like to come in? You look like you need some rest."

Shephard nods weakly. The Monster moves further into the house and then takes a sudden right, leaving the door open for the marine. Closing the door behind him, Adrian follows the Monster. Chara hesitates for a moment, before following her new partner. The pair make it to a well lit living room. Shelves with books can be seen lining the wall, along with portraits of other Monsters. A large rocking chair lay adjacent to a lit fireplace, with Toriel standing next to it. The Monster gestures to the couch not far from the chair, prompting Adrian to slowly make his way to said couch. Taking a seat, Adrian notices how comfortable the couch is, causing him to relax his muscles. Chara takes a seat next to him. The Monster clears her throat before speaking up.

"I almost forgot to introduce myself. I'm Toriel, Caretaker of the Ruins, and I welcome you into my home Mr…?"

"Adrian Shephard ma'am."

Toriel's features soften, and mumbles something under her breath. Adrian can only pick up the words, "oh dear" and "young." Anyways she continues.

"I know this might not be my place, but can you take off your mask? No offense but it's a little unnerving talking to a gas mask."

Adrian tenses up. A solid fifteen seconds pass, before slowly, he brings his hands up to his head. First he unstraps the buckle for his helmet. Taking off the helmet reveals his dark black hair, shaven in proper marine fashion. Pressing a button on the side of his respirators turns off his Heads Up Display, causing his lenses to become dark instead of the usual green. Finally, and with pain staking slowness, he pulls off his respirator.

* * *

Chara didn't like being back here. It only brought back painful memories of the last hundred or so Resets. Flashes of fire, dust, and the glint of an old toy knife flashes through her head.

' _No, not again. I_ _ **won't**_ _let it happen again. I've changed god damn it.'_

" _ **We are Slaves~ We are all Slaves~"**_

Again, that voice assaults her hearing. It's been relatively quiet since the dream, only repeating the same phrase over and over again at random intervals throughout the Ruins. Why, she doesn't know. All Chara does know, is that apparently there all slaves. Slaves of what? Of the Resets? If so, then how is Adrian connected to all of this? It said that he will set us all free. Does that mean Adrian is the key to breaking the cycle? Or does it mean something else, something other then the Resets?

Putting those thoughts away for the moment, Chara puts her attention back onto Adrian and Toriel, with Adrian in the process of taking off his helmet. A burst of curiosity flow through her being. She hasn't seen what Adrian looks like behind the mask. He's been keen on keeping it on, never taking it off for any reason. So getting to see what her new partner looks like interest her.

After turning off his lenses, Adrian finally pulls off his mask, revealing his face. If Chara was honest with herself, she would say he looks quite handsome. With a strong chin line, clean shaved face and two bright green eyes. However, all of that contrast to obvious signs of sleep deprivation and numerous scars that dot his face. Dark circles are visible under his bloodshot eyes. While Chara knew he was tired, she didn't realize how bad it really was. It looks as if he hasn't gotten any sleep in a couple of _days_.

"My goodness, when was the last time you slept my child?"

Shephard shakes his head before responding to Toriel's question.

"Not for the past two days, but I swear I'm fine."

"You're _fine?!_ My child, you look as if you could fall asleep any minute now. Please follow me, I think you deserve some rest. We can talk once your fully rested."

Shephard is about to speak up once again, but is interrupted by Toriel before he can say anything.

"And don't tell me your fine. Your getting some sleep."

Defeated, Adrian simply nods and gets up. Chara follows suit, and before long their following Toriel out of the living room, pass the front door, and into a long stretch of hallway with three doors to the left. Toriel stops at the second door. Opening the door shows the room exactly how Chara remembers it from the last Reset. A small bed, desk, bookshelf and desk all along the back wall.

"Please make yourself comfortable."

"Thank you Toriel, I'm serious, by the way. Things have been hectic for me as you can tell with my uniform."

"No need to thank me Shephard. I think we should have a talk about your uniform once you wake up. I mean no offense once again, but you don't smell awfully pleasant."

Shephard smiles and replies almost immediately.

"Yeah, I can tell."

You know, you look as young as someone I knew before…" A solem look befalls her face, before she shakes her head.

"Sorry, just reminiscing about something from the past."

Shephard nods.

"I understand. Goodnight Toriel."

Toriel nods, before closing the door, leaving both Chara and Adrian alone. Suddenly, Adrian turns to the ghost with a look of concern and ask a questionthat she's been dreading for the past 5 minutes.

"Are you okay Chara?"

Chara narrows her eyes.

"What do you mean?

"Don't play dumb with me Chara, you seemed really distant the whole time with Toriel. I know we just me and I don't want to push anything but I'm here to talk in case anything is really bothering you."

"I'm _**fine**_. Just don't bring up again."

Shephard stares at her for a few more seconds with a look of concern, before he nods and turns around. Taking off his backpack, his rife, Powered Combat Vest, pipe wrench and all of his other gear, Adrian puts it all in the closet along with his helmet and respirator. Grabbing Spitball and Sparky from his back, he addresses the two.

"You guys can go to sleep if you want, or, if you can, I guess."

In response, Spitball immediately curls around his arm, and proceeds to fall fast asleep. Sparky on the other hand, simply jumps, and starts to radiate plasma around his three appendages. Taking this as a 'no, he doesn't need sleep' Shephard lays down and lets the alien crawl on his chest. Turning to Chara, Shephard opens his mouth only to be interrupted by the ghost.

"No, I don't need sleep. Ghost remember?"

Nodding to himself, the marine closes his eyes and at long last, lets sleep overtake him.

With him fast asleep, Chara begins to wander over to the bookshelf. The voice hasn't spoken and thus have been forgotten about for the moment leaving her to become lost in thought. None of which are pleasant. Memories of all of her treks through this same house come back to her. Even before the Resets. Before it all went all so wrong. Before her transformation.

When she first "woke up" she remembers not having any empathy for the Monsters. Considering them all traitors, going so far as convincing Frisk to kill them after the first few Resets.

' _Frisk.'_

Chara use to considered herself a demon. That was before she saw that Frisk _really_ was the demon all along. At first, Chara encouraged her, but as time went on, as Frisk grew more and more Determined, did she realized what she became, and it sickened Chara to no end. Emotions, real honest to god _emotions_ came flooding back to her. Doesn't mean she forgives what Monsterkind, or what her brother did to betray her, but never she want to commit wish to be involved in their genocide. She begged for Frisk to stop after that, but she never listened. The once innocent girl was turned into a psychotic murderer, and it was all her fault.

Actually, Chara hasn't put much thought into it, but where is Frisk? Obviously a Reset has taken place since Toriel is still alive, but how is that possible? Frisk has never been able to Reset in the middle of a "run" before. And then there the subject of Shephard. At first she thought he had something to do with this, but his explanation of aliens and portals dismiss that theory. While it might be possible that he's lying about it, the way in which he got here, and the two creatures brought with him back him up, if only slightly. He's also completely ignorant of both the Underground and Monster kind, which adds another reason as to why he couldn't have been responsible. That only leaves two candidates.

The first one is obviously Gaster. He's always been an enigma, even to her brother. So it's possible that this is all his doing. However, Gaster has never shown the ability to control the Resets. It also isn't his M O. He always lurks in the shadows, observing Frisk - and Sans for some reason - but never does he interferes. Another reason it can't be him is due to Adrian himself. Adrian is a human, so how would Gaster be able to get another human to enter the Underground. Especially in such a bizarre manner. This only leaves her with one more culprit.

The voice.

" _ **We are not the cause. I follow the change, not cause it."**_

' _You can hear me?'_

" _ **I occupy the same space as you."**_

' _But how? And more importantly, WHY?'_

" _ **I was drawn to you, for you~ are one of many keys to our salvation."**_

Chara blinks. Shaking her head, she responds to the voice in her mind.

' _To who?! Who's Salvation?'_

" _ **The answer will come to you, but only in fractures, not a whole. For I am much like you, destroyed and shattered across the void."**_

' _You're dead.'_

A statement, not a question.

" _ **By the one who brought on this change you witness. For HE wishes to use the keys. For HE is an INTERLOPER, and an enigma."**_

" _ **Time is short, but know that the answers you seek will come in time."**_

' _And why should I believe you. I don't even know_ _ **what**_ _you are? Let alone your motives.'_

The voice doesn't answer. Not wanting to wait for a response, Chara turns to the sleeping marine behind her, and the two "aliens" with him. Sparky, the blue beetle creature, is currently on Adrians chest, looking around like a guard dog. The green one on the other hand, Spitball, is curled around Shephard's bicep.

' _Thats alot of muscle.'_

Shaking her head, Chara gets rid of those thoughts and proceeds to shove them into the deepest corner of her mindscape. Where there hopefully never come back from. Chara stops shaking her head for a second. For a calendar on the wall has caught her attention. Normally it wouldn't warrant any attention from her, but something seems off about it. Walking up to it, she tries to see what's bugging her about this calendar. Nothing seems off. It's still December 12, like it has always been thanks to the Resets. Looking up however shows the problem.

Chara gasp as she sees reads the calendar.

**December 12,**

**2041**

Her vision suddenly goes very dark with a tinge of green on the sides, and before she knew it, she's having another "dream."


	6. Area Secured

"Speech"

' _Thoughts'_

" _Past speech"_

" _ **other"**_

* * *

" _MOVE! HEAVY! FIRE FIRE!"_

_Shephard sleeps, but not peacefully. Memories of the last two days flash before his eyes like a slideshow, with several voices from his journey through Black Mesa along with them. The landing, the confusion, the arrival of both Black Ops, Race X, and the realization of what was actually going on hitting him like a freight train, he remembers it vividly._

" _Make sure you don't forget about us you hear?" Said an overweight security guard. Despite his appearance, Ottis was an excellent shot, saving Shephard plenty of times from all sorts of Xenian life._

" _Oh no, your one of_ _ **them**_ _. Can't we all just get along?" That was Shephard's first hint that something was wrong. That something was very wrong. He should of asked the scientist to clarify what he meant, but he didn't. Instead he had Ottis stay with him and guard the man while he went ahead._

" _Where's Freeman?" The large towering form of sergeant Harris asked while pushing a decrepit scientist further into a closet. Another clue of what was really going on below the surface, and yet again, he ignored it, opting to head to the VTOL outside instead. Only to be left behind._

" _ **HE-lp MEEEEEE!"**_ _A former Black Mesa security guard said, as he lumbered over to Shephard with claws outstretched, ready to rip into the marine's flesh. A .357 magnum round collided with the crab on the guard's head, blowing both the crab and the head apart in a shower of human and alien blood._

" _What the hell are these things Corporal?" A medic dressed much like Shephard, minus the gasmask and with the red cross on his helmet to signify his role, asked. No one at the time had the answer, so the question was left up in the air, clinging to everyone's mind. The medic died shortly after. A bolt of green electricity fried his brain before he could even scream. The offender was quickly filled with lead courtesy of Shephard and the rest of the medic's squad._

" _Shephard, our orders are not to evacuate the science team, there to kill." That broke him more than anything else at Black Mesa. That his comrades, his BROTHERS have been mindlessly executing civilians. It even hurt more when he found out that some were even enjoying it. They were enjoying the slaughter of innocents. Adrian joined the marine corp for many reasons. To serve his nation, protect his fellow citizens, and upholding the values of his nation. However there was another reason. He joined because he was alone. He wanted to be a part of something, or more importantly a group. People he could trust with his life. Livonia, and now Black Mesa have broken that._

" _No one told us about Black Operations in the mission briefing." Private Jenkins asked "Yeah, I mean were all on the same team right? Right…?" He killed what felt like hundreds of Black Ops assassins over the course of two days, and honestly he could care less about the actual numbers. Those bastards were even more brutal than his fellow marines, targeting anyone and everyone. They didn't even hesitate to open fire on the HECU. It was the final straw in Shephard's mind. Everyone had betrayed him. His fellow marines, and his nation. While some of the marines admitted to feeling guilty about executing Black Mesa personnel, and some even disobeyed their orders, but that didn't make up for the deaths in his mind. They were all guilty, even him._

" _Did you really hate me that much?" A familiar voice said._

_The slideshow of memories was abruptly cut off by the image of Toriel crouched down near a large door. Her hand was covering a massive gash on her chest, trying to stop the flow of dust flying off of the wound. What the hell is going on? Adrian wondered, worried for the monsters safety. Suddenly Toriel, Caretaker of the Ruins, turned to dust. He wanted to scream, he really did, but he couldn't move. There was no feeling throughout his entire body. For all intents and purposes he was nothing but a viewer. A figure clouded by darkness walked over to the door, not even bothering to glance at the pile of dust on the floor._

_The figure comes into the light, revealing a purple sweatshirt, brown hair, and a toy knife swinging around aimlessly. Reaching the door, the figure turns and face Shephard. Those eyes, Adrian thought to himself. The same uncaring expression he seen time and time again in the eyes of the many Black Ops assassins he's killed. No empathy for the innocent life taken, just simply hollow of all emotions other than irritation. The girl turns back to the door, closing it on her way out, and letting consciousness reach Adrian once more._

* * *

' _2041'_

Chara repeated it over and over again in her mind, as if simply uttering the truth would make her forget what she saw. Something isn't just wrong she told herself as she floated through an endless void. Everything has changed. From Frisk, to the voice, and now the date. What else is new, the ghost wondered. What else could be different from the last thousands of Resets? That line of thought was then interrupted by the change in her surroundings.

No longer was she simply floating, but instead Chara found herself in a spacious orange room with only one window with human scientist looking in from behind, in front of her is a large machine unlike she's even seen before. The closest thing she can compare this all to is the Core, but with less lava. A large ball of energy emitting a loud humming noise floats between both the base and the tower of machine, both of which are feeding a continuous beam of… something into the ball of energy. Suddenly a voice cut through the room from one of the many speakers aligning the wall.

" **We've just been informed that the sample is ready Gordon. It should be coming up to you at any moment. Look to the delivery system for your specimen."**

A figure in a bulky orange suit of armor climbs down from a ladder behind Chara and walks over to a caged off section of the room with red blinking lights. The lights turn blue as a machine holding a large crystal arrives on a platform inside the cage. The crystal itself is like no other, not because of its appearance, but due to the strain put on her eyes just looking at the damn thing. It simply has an aura of wrongness around it, like the very Universe despises its existence. The cage surrounding the machine and crystal suddenly retracts, allowing the figure in the suit to position himself behind it.

" **Standard insertion, for a non standard specimen."** The voice from before announces, but with a hint of uncertainty present.

The figure pushes the machine closer and closer to the central beam, causing Chara to tense up despite knowing it's simply a "dream." The figure reaches the beam, and every so slightly pushes the crystal into it. The two make contact...

And all hell breaks loose

Once a soft orange, the ball of green energy not unlike the portal she saw Shephard emerge from takes its place. Like the portal, large arches of electricity smash into the wall of the containment room, blowing holes and raining down debris all over the figure and Chara. While not affecting her, the large pieces of wall does force the figure in the orange suit to run over to a sealed blast door. The light from the ball of energy has grown both in size, and intensity, forcing Chara to shield her eyes. Panic voices can be heard from the speakers, before one of the arches of electricity blows through the window, silencing the screaming scientists for good. Another beam smashes into the man in orange, who disappears once it reaches him. This goes on for a few more seconds, with more and damage being done to the room around her until suddenly one of the beams hits Chara dead on in her chest. Pain, actually _pain_ surges through her body causing her to close her eyes in shock before the feeling abruptly stops.

Opening her eyes, Chara can see the scene has changed. Now she stands over the corpse of many dead scientists in what looks like an office. The walls and the equipment is painted red in the blood of those that once used them. Strange sounds reverberate throughout the room. Screaming, roaring, and gunshots follow close behind.

Then, like nothing ever happened, she back in the bed room with the sleeping form of Adrian, staring at the same damn calendar.

' _What the hell was that?!'_ Chara thought to herself. She then remembers what the voice said before the dream. That her answers would come to her in due time, but in fragments.

' _Are those what these dreams are? Its way of revealing why all of this is happening?'_

A rattling noise comes from Sparky. The creature is facing her direction staring at the ghost. Now that she thinks about it, Chara has never gotten a look at their Souls. Both Sparky and Spitball hid inside of Adrian's backpack, never showing themselves unless told to by their ride. So she never got a chance to actually take a peak of the creature's Soul to determine what it is exactly. While she isn't one to speak, as she is a ghost held together by the power of Determination alone, Adrian's story of fighting aliens before arriving just doesn't seem that believable. Again, she one to talk considering their trapped inside a mountain with magical Monsters and (possibly) a time traveling murderer, but she actually _seen_ all of that. Besides, Adrian hasn't really disclose much of what happened with the aliens or anything really, only repeating that he fought them off. Chara has a hard time believing that one soldier, Determination or not, could defeat an alien invasion. Hell Frisk died at least twenty times when she first arrived in the Underground before reaching Asgore, and that's being generous.

Chara walks away from the calendar and towards the creature on Adrian's chest. Sparkie immediately starts to make a series of noise by producing some type of rattling noise. After getting halfway across the room, the ghost stops, and allows herself to look into Sparky's Soul.

The process of looking at another beings Soul isn't all that complicated. You simply get within a certain distance, and will the Soul to become visible. Now normally, a human would never be able to see a Soul unless it's brought out by a Monster, but she's an exception since she technically dead. It might also have something to do with her giving her Soul to her "brother" after her death, but that only an assumption.

The world around Chara and Sparky becomes fuzzy, and out of focus. She wills the creature Soul to show itself to her, and it does. She wasn't expecting what she saw.

All Souls take the form of a heart, whether it be Monster or human. Now of course there are differences between them all. For example, a Monsters Soul is always upside down and primarily white in color unless said Monster specializes or is very skill with one form of magic, while a human, or an animal, is always right side up with six different variations of colors. Each color representing a certain trait, like red meaning Determination. So she was expecting something very similar with Sparky.

Instead, she gets a star purple in coloration. While it is purple like perseverance, it's much lighter in tone. Another difference between it and any other Soul is the fact that its "connected" to Adrian's Soul. Overall, Chara got her answers.

They are indeed aliens.

She isn't an expert when it comes to Souls, but all of her research and experience with them show that they have always been a heart. Their _could_ be other colors for different traits sure, but never have a Soul been shaped in such a way, nor has one been connected to another. She doesn't count, since she isn't connected, but rather "fueled" by another's Determination. But who's to say that an _alien_ would follow those same basic principles?

The Soul disappears and her vision returns to normal. Sparky is still staring at her, but has stopped making any noise.

"AH."

Adrian quickly picks up Sparky and bolts up out of his bed, with pistol in one hand, and aliens in the other. His eyes are wide open, with him searching his surroundings really quickly. He quickly calms down and lowers his weapon, and spots Chara over by in the middle of the room.

"Adrian, are you okay?" Chara ask.

He nods his head. "Yeah, just a bad dream, I'm fine now."

Chara doesn't speak.

"Anyways, how long have I've been out?"

"About…" Chara stops. Looking around the room, she sees that it's been 9 hours since her "dream" if the clock on the wall is anything to go by. Has she really been out that long? Chara wondered. Apparently so, because Toriel has already brought in a slice of pie while the two were out of commission.

"Nine hours. Toriel brought you a pie while you were sleeping."

The Marine hums. He then proceeds to holster his pistol, and head to the nightstand with the pie on it. He takes the small plate and sits down on the bed.

"You want a piece?"

Chara smiles and nods sitting down next to Adrian, who then gives her a slice that she snatches out of his hand with the speed comparable to a squirrel taking someones candy. The marine just watches as the ghost besides him devours her piece of the pie.

"Wait, how can you eat if your a ghost? And how are you holding that anyways?"

Chara shrugs her shoulders, "Don't question it" temporarily forgetting about the date and shoves the rest of her pie into her mouth. "Sooo goucood."

Ignoring the childish antics of the ghost besides him, Adrian takes his slice and takes a bit of it. Almost immediately his eyes light up with pleasure as the Monster food fills his stomach and he marvels in awe as it starts to heal some of his minor injuries.

* * *

After a few minutes of eating the rest of their pie, Chara and a fully geared up Adrian walk out of the room and into the living room, where they meet Toriel on her rocking chair.

"Ah, Adrian, you're finally awake. Did you enjoy the pie I made?"

"It was delicious, definitely better than the MRE's we're giving back in the corp." Adrian replies smiling.

Toriel smile's brightens, before a serious look befalls on her face."That's good to hear, now please take a seat, I think we need to talk about a few things."

The two sit down, although Toriel only sees Adrian, and not Chara who's staring at her intently.

"Now first off, I want to apologize Adrian for not getting to you sooner. I normally look around the entrance to see if any humans have fallen, but none have done so in so long that I've been kinda slacking on my duties. I really thought for a while that another human wouldn't fall in. It's been so long after all"

Adrian leans further into the couch. "It's fine, I managed fine on my own. Most of the Monsters weren't that aggressive, with the exception of one demonic flower."

The Caretaker nods in understanding. "I've seen that particular flower around a few times, he's always causing trouble scaring some of his fellow Monsters. You didn't hurt any of them did you? The Monsters I mean." Toriel ask, fear present in her eyes.

"No of course not. Again, they weren't that bad." Adrian interjects, not telling her about the large amount of gold given to him by said Monsters, or his ghostly companion.

The Caretaker of the Ruins visibly relaxes, and rocks on her chair. She gestures to the bedroom. "That's good to know. While some might not be that… Advance, their still part of our species, and they mean no harm. Anyways I've meant to ask you. What were those creatures sleeping with you?"

"Their companions of mine. I'm guessing you saw them when you delivered the pie."

"Yes, in fact the blue one was quite hostile when I came in." A soft laugh emanates from her.

Taking both of his aforementioned allies from his backpack, Adrian smiles as the two latch onto his arm like toddlers. "Sorry about that. Sparky has always been very protective of both Spitball and I." An irritated rattling is heard right after and followed along with a gentle, "Oh be quiet you."

"It's no problem my child. Anyways, I need to speak to you on your current situation. Your are currently in the Ruins, which itself is part of the Underground. The Underground is home to all of Monsterkind, who have been trapped here for centuries thanks to the use of a powerful magical barrier set up after a bloody war with Humanity."

Shephard doesn't interrupt.

"However, their something else I must tell you. Your still young, but you are an adult by human standards. An adult who has seen plenty of bloodshed if your uniform is anything to go by. So I have no power over what you do next, however…" She pauses, before collecting herself and continuing. "Beyond the Ruins is the rest of Monsterkind, who are desperate to reach the surface. The King… _Asgore…_ " Adrian notices the large amount of venom in her voice when the name was mentioned. "He will kill you. I've seen time and time again. Children would fall down here, and would continue forward despite my warnings, and they die. _He_ has already collected six human Souls, and with one more, he will be able to break the barrier, and continue the war with Humanity." The former Queen of Monsters; not that Shephard is aware of that. Adrian leans forward, and with a pleading look begs him to stay down here. To live down here with her. "I know it's not much, but we can make the best of what we can.

Adrian doesn't say anything, opting to stare at the Monster instead while in deep thought. Most of that information isn't that shocking considering Chara already gave him a brief summary of the Underground and its inhabitants after their first interaction. Of how Monster are given a large boost in power when they absorb a human Soul. Not that means anything, Adrain _has_ to continue, for _he_ watches. Even now, Adrian is sure that bastard is somewhere in this very room, with that same damn briefcase and same damn smirk. But that's not the only reason why he must go forward. This king, this _Asgore_ , is a threat to all of humanity, and he sure as hell didn't go through all of that effort in taking down the aliens in Black Mesa and saving the world just to have some magical Monsters destroy everything. Shephard might be a wanted man by the government he swore to protect, but he still doesn't want it to be brought down to ruins, or the _world_ for that matter. He might not know how powerful this guy is, but the point still stands. Even if he does stay with Toriel however, what's stopping another human from falling, and what if they find another way through, past the watchful eye of Toriel. There is no choice in the matter.

"Toriel, I have to go forward, there's no choice in the matter. What if someone else falls down here, or worse, what if he finds a way to break this barrier without the Souls? I know of Asgore, its my mission to stop him. I'll take the Souls, and send them somewhere safe." That last part is a lie. Adrian has no idea what will happen to the Souls once _he_ gets them, but he has to convince Toriel to let him go and hope that _he_ won't do anything to bring ruin upon everyone.

Toriel looks down trodden from his answer, but still manages to smile through it anyways. Whispering to herself, "So much like her." She looks Adrian dead in the eyes. "Alright then, I'll let you continue but you need to answer me this."

He nods, "Of course."

"Where they bad, the people you killed? I can see you've taken a lot of lives Shephard, so I must know if it was justified. I know that might be a little hard for you to answer, as you are a soldier, and trust me, I'm sadly all too familiar with war myself." She sits back and waits for his answer.

Adrian takes a deep breath. "Yes, they were bad people. They murdered countless of my comrades and plenty of innocents. I don't know how many I killed, but I do know that those _bastards_ don't deserve any sympathy." Adrian says, intentionally leaving out the part about aliens. That because the aliens weren't terrible as well, but rather to not sound like a nutcase. Although he does wonder why Toriel isn't that concerned about either Spitball or Sparky.

Again, the Caretaker smiles. "While I wish there was another way you could of dealt with who ever you were fighting, I'm happy that you are at least telling me why you killed them. Now, normally, I wouldn't allow you to leave the Ruins considering I know nothing about you personally or who exactly you've killed, I do know this. You're not a murderer. That might sound crazy considering we haven't met before, but I lived for a long time Adrian. A long time. And in that time, I've gotten to know many people, and have become well versed in the ways of reading them, both by their Souls, and their eyes. And when I look into yours, I see a kindred Soul, one who has seen far too much bloodshed not of their own fruition. I see a child struggling with the weight of sins thrust upon him. Adrian, I can see the look of both lost, and betrayal in your Soul, but despite that you've continued. I have faith that you will not disappoint me when it comes to what you do in the Underground."

Throughout all of that, Adrian shoulders slumped more and more with the weight of Black Mesa being brought back into his mind. He can only nod along mindlessly as she continued on. He's also touched that someone has so much faith in someone like him, a bloodied marine with two aliens and ghost companion. Not that she knows of Chara, of course. Although it is a little disturbing that she could read him so easily.

"Now Adrian, when do you want to leave?" Toriel suddenly ask.

"In a few minutes. I don't want to stay long. Don't want to take up any room. Besides, I'm kinda stinking up your house." Adrian replied sheepishly.

"Sorry I can't offer you a place to shower, I normally use the one further into the Ruins but it's quite a way away."

"It's no problem. Hey, does your food normally heal bullet wounds?"

* * *

Walking down into the basement with Toriel, Adrian double checks his backpack for supplies. Ammo is still the same, the only difference being that he replaced the half empty mag in his M4 with a fully loaded one. Food is looking much better, with plenty of water and snacks for him and his aliens pets. (and Chara?) All courtesy of Toriel of course. Suits recharged, and all of them have been well fed and rested. All in all, their looking in good shape. Toriel, Adrian, and Chara round the corner of the hallway only for Adrian to momentary freeze in his tracks. In front of them is the same door from his dream. The memory of Toriel turning to dust comes back to his mind.

"Adrian, are you sure your okay?" His ghostly companion asked. Although Adrian does notice that even she looks a little uncomfortable around the large door.

"Yeah, sorry. Lets go." He says quietly trying not to alert Toriel.

The two reach the Caretaker, who turns to them and explains that "this is the exit to the Ruins, and the only known way into the rest of the Underground." She smiles sadly. "I wish you luck in your journey my child. I only ask that you avoid killing the other Monsters. The Royal Guard will try to capture you and bring you to the king."

"I'll try my best Toriel, but if it comes to the choice between me, or one of the guards, I have to choose them."

She looks frowns but nods nevertheless. "I understand, just try." She turns around and opens the door, which Adran walks through, with Chara in tow. He turns around last minute however. "Toriel, thank you, for everything. I will never forget it. I'll stop the king, he won't harm anyone else. I promise." He takes a hand off his rifle and offers it to the Monster in a handshake. The Monster gladly accepts it, enveloping Shephard's hands due to her sheer size.

"Please Adrian, don't come back, I hope you understand."

The marine nods. "Bye Toriel."

She shuts the door, locking Adrian Shephard, and his companions in the Underground.

Chara speaks up, saying exactly what Adrian was thinking. "That was surprisingly easy."

It was he thought. But something been bothering him lately. A few things actually. First off being who was that person he saw in his dream? Another random thought, something he hasn't thought about is…

What is he going to do once he meets Asgore?


	7. Snowfall

"Speech"

' _Thoughts'_

" _Past speech"_

" _ **other"**_

* * *

_A bipedal form walks around the corner of a darkened hallway. Very few details can be made out other then the large red eye with a purple ethereal glow where its pupil would be, and with many smaller eyes surrounding it. The creature stops for a second to observe its surrounding._

_Unlike some of the dead humans that surround it, the darkness does not hinder it's vision. Years of evolution and genetic manipulation by its master has made sure of that. So navigating through the maze of the dead is no problem for it. Had the creature not of had its binds, both mental and physical, it might have taken pity on those that it currently walk over._

_But atlas, the bonds are there._

_The creature stops as a noise echoed through the hall. The tell tale sound of one of the human's large mechanical doors opening following close behind it. The sound was comparable to one of the bugs used by it larger comrades as a weapons, but very brief and with a more electronic tone to it. The situation is all too familiar to the bipedal creature realizes._

_A human is here._

_The humans have to rely on technology to see through the dark, that it understands from what the creature has seen. Without it, they are completely helpless. This particular creature has used this to its advantage multiple times throughout the invasion, killing a good number of unsuspecting humans. While most were unarmed, a few did possess some type of handgun. But alas, it did them no good without any illumination._

_The sound of boots hitting the metal floor gets ever closer and closer. Any second the human will round the corner of the hallway. As predicted a human did come around it not but a few seconds later._

_The creature brings up its three clawed hands as strange foreign energies start to gather in front of it, the power increasing every nanosecond as it wills the power of the energy to be flung forward towards the human at incredible speeds._

" _ **DIE."**_

_A bolt of what can only described as lighting is flung forward towards the unsuspecting human. However, in the time the creature has charged up it shot, the human has already moved and has brought up a large pistol aimed directly for the creature's head. The bolt pass by harmlessly until it hits a wall, leaving a scorch mark where it impacted._

_It was at this moment the creature realized its mistake. Unlike the other humans the creature has been killing for a while now, this one wears a thin vest over loose fitting clothes, with a vast assortment of weapons attached to its back and hip. Its face, is covered by some type of mask that has two lenses that glow an ominous green._

_It a human soldier._

_The creature hasn't fought any of the main human forces that arrived shortly after the invasion started. It was simply to deep in the human facility to have come in contact with any of them. So it has no real experience fighting them. Another problem is that the human is facing its direction with a large pistol aimed right at it. Now it has a decision to make. Either it can try to conjurer up another shot at the human and risk being killed by a hail of gunfire that is sure to come its way, or it can try to move out of the way and hope the human is too panicked to correct its aim._

_It makes its decisions in an instant._

_A shot rang out, briefly illuminating the hallway._

_As the now headless alien dropped to the floor, Adrian can only wonder how such a creature can conjurer up such energies in its hands. Or is it claws? He's not really sure. It doesn't matter anyways, its dead. Just like all the innocents it slaughtered, and judging by the large amount of bodies everywhere, it was a lot of innocents who were killed._

_Heading further down the body ridden hallway finally brings him to what he was looking for the past hour._

_A door leading outside._

_He's been crawling through Black Mesa for awhile now fighting off aliens from trying to get a shot at either him or others in the facility. But even after killing so many, it's been barely put a dent in the bastards numbers. So unless he regroup with the rest of the HECU element left behind during evacuations, he won't be doing much to help clearing the place out, or even evacuating survivors._

_Holstering his standard issue Desert Eagle, the lone marine brings out a M4 and ever so slightly opens the door to the outside. The door leads outside onto a catwalk that gave him an excellent view of some of Black Mesa and the marine elements left behind. Now he didn't know what he was expecting when he meets up with those left behind, but this surely wasn't it._

_It a literal war outside. No, a fight for survival would be more accurate. All over, groups of marines are facing off against legions of aliens. Alien stingray fly through the air, firing large beams of yellow energy from their stomachs against both entrenched and armored units. Creatures similar to the one in the hallway lob green arches of energy at barricades. Marines try to fire off shots from behind cover, only to have swarms of bugs fired back in retaliation from the much larger and bulkier X-rays._

_There's no front line, no tactics, just soldiers holding out in fortified positions as the rest of their unit head as far away from the war zone as they can, leaving them to fend for themselves. To make matters even worse, most of them are separated, giving the aliens the chance to go through and wipe them out one group at a time, and with most of them backed into a corner, it will stay that way. Meaning their all be dead before the hour._

_Thats if he doesn't do anything about it._

_With a plan already in mind. The soldier checks to see if he still has any 40mm in his under slung grenade launcher for his M4. Seeing that he still has two left, along with a few fragmentation grenades, the marine aims at a group of zombies coming particular close to a a barricade that his fellow marines set up. Not a second later, most of the group is in pieces, with many of their limbs flying through the air and causing some of the more intelligent aliens to look up at his position._

' _This isn't going to be pretty.'_

* * *

The walk through the Exit was quiet. Too quiet for Adrian's taste. Back at Black Mesa, there was never a moment when there wasn't the sound of machinery, alarms, aliens, or even the very structure falling apart around him. Here there's nothing but the sound of his own footsteps.

Luckily, the walk wasn't that long. After passing a batch of grass - he swore that the flower from before was going to pop out of it, but it didn't - the two finally made it to the doorway that would lead them to the proper Underground. The doorway was completely similar to the one they came from. Were it not for the fact they've been heading in a straight line the whole time, he would have thought they somehow went in a circle. Taking a hand off his M4 and onto the door, he pushes ever so slightly, meeting very little resistance despite its apparent size.

Snowfall makes its way from the other side of the door and onto Adrian. Now with the door finally opened, he can finally see what's on the other side. Thick forest surrounds him on both sides, completely obscuring his view from both of his flanks. A path runs from the doorway further down, splitting the forest in two. However there something else.

He's being watched.

Or at least, he feels like he is being watched. Its a certain trait that he's developed during his time in the Marines that saved him plenty of times. Weather it be from Black Ops Assassins, alien crabs, or snipers. Looking around once again, Adrian notices a suspiciously large bush to his right. Looking over to Chara doesn't help. She's been very quiet since they left Toriel. Something he should talk about when their alone and not being watched, or rather he is.

Slowly raising up his rifle, the marine slowly advances to the bush. Then with a sudden burst of speed, he moves the leaves to reveal a…

A camera.

Lowering his rifle, Adrian leaves the camera alone and turns back to the path, reasoning that destroying it wouldn't do much in the long run. He's been spotted, and he now knows why he felt on edge.

So why does he still have that nagging feeling that he's being watched?

Heading down the path doesn't ease that feeling, even though he knows that there aren't any cameras around him, he made sure of that.

***SNAP***

He turns around, gun drawn for the potential stalker. To his surprise, he doesn't find anything other than a broken branch on the ground, showing that someone, or something was indeed there. Again he turns to Chara but she only stares back at him, not giving him a clue on whatever is going on. So again, he continues forward until he finds himself in front of a small drop and a wooden bridge that connects both sides together. That feeling of being watched still present.

Checking behind him and all around him doesn't reveal the stalker, and the only way forward is over the bridge. So cautiously, he steps on the bridge and walks across, Chara close behind. It's only after they walk across it does that nagging feeling leaves him behind.

The sound of something moving fast through the air assaults his hearing.

Instincts kick in, and the lone marine rolls out of the way of the object thrown at him. Getting back up, he can see a _very_ large bone embedded in the spot he was just in. Bringing up his rifle once again, he searches the treeline for anything that might have thrown it at him to, once again, find nothing. It's around this time that Chara speaks up.

"Well that's new."

It was barely a whisper, probably something that she didn't mean to say out loud. And what's new Adrian wondered. The fact he almost got impaled by a bone, or that he was able to dodge in time. Did she throw it? He doesn't think so. It was going way to fast for her to have simply flung it at him. Unless she holding back some magical abilities she hasn't told him about. But again, she seems more surprised about the fact that the bone is here, and not that he survived it.

A pair of footsteps impacting against the snow comes from behind him. He turns again, expecting to find nothing, but instead, he finds his stalker.

* * *

The Dump, as it's simply called by the rest of the Underground, is where the entirety of the Underground disposes its waste. Since human trash already fell in from an above ground stream that made its way into the Dump, it was naturally the most logical choice for one. However with overpopulation becoming more and more of a problem for the residents of the Underground, many have debated whether they should try to clear the space to make way for more homes for monsters. However others have argued that human trash would still fall in, making such a move unsuccessful in the end.

Of course that what the general populace knows. In reality, not a single piece of human trash has fallen in the Dump for over 20 years.

Why it was decided that this fact would be hidden from the rest of the Underground, RG 02 doesn't know, nor does he care. All he cares about is making sure he and his bro can find out what's been making all of that ruckus as of lately.

"Yo Papyrus, can you like, make sure no one follows us in, like okay dude?"

"ROGER DODGER MR ROYAL GUARD. I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL MAKE SURE NO ONE FOLLOWS YOU INTO THE DUMP."

"Like, thanks dude. Are you ready bro."

RG 02 simply nodes.

The Dump does live up to its name. Trash, both human and Monster, piled high as they can be seen all around them. From discarded cups, broken TV's, to the more unsavory items from both the Underground and surface. Rats, one of the few non monsters found in the Underground, along with many other subterranean creatures wander through the mountains of trash, rummaging through whatever they can pick up and eat.

"So bro, like, what do you think we'll find down here?"

RG 02 doesn't speak for a second, thinking on what _could_ be down here. It's unlikely that it's a human, they would have made their way out by know. Same goes for Monsters. While there have been Monsters that have gone through the dump before, they've never caused such a ruckus. Meaning the only option left is that it's some animal. Animals finding themselves trapped in the underground isn't new, so it makes sense it could just be a one of them, however those that have fallen down before hand haven't caused suck a ruckus, nor any have they caused distress among monsters. it could be a pretty large animal however. A deer? Maybe even a wolf. Would explain some of the odd sounds.

"I'm not sure. But I'm thinking it's just some animal that got caught up in the stream on the surface." He shakes his head. "Nothing else would make sense, less its a Monster pulling a prank on all of us."

"Like, I'm sure we'll get to the bottom of this."

RG 02 nods.

The two continue down through the Dump, pushing pass all of the discarded trash and water in there way. This doesn't effect the two in the slightest. The thick knightly armor they wear make pushing pass it trivial. Another minute goes pass of them searching and nothing but the sound of rushing water can be heard from all around them.

It's not until ten minutes past they find something. A broken up dummy, with many smaller dummies scattered around. That itself isn't that concerning.

The dust floating next to the dummy however, is.

"Bro."

RG 02 gets down on his knees to and examines both the dummy and the dust. It's not long before he speaks.

"It's a Monster. A ghost Monster if I had to guess. Seems like it was slashed to pieces as it was inhabiting the dummy. It fought back, but…" No words had to be spoken to convey what happened.

"Bro… We like, have to report this to Undyne."

The sound of water splashing all over the place interrupt them. RG 02 quickly gets up and unholsters his sword. RG 01 follow suit almost immediately. The two get together, back to back.

"Whoever there! Stop!"

A piece of trash fall over into the water. A crash is heard nearby, and rats scurry away further into the piles of trash. The two Royal Guard don't let this deter them however. They've been practicing together for years against the best fighter the Underground has ever seen. Not only that, but their teamwork is superb. Alone, they might be a force to be reckoned with, but together they're unstoppable.

The mountain of trash next to them explodes outwards as a shape speeds on through it. Debris splatters harmlessly against their armor. However the shape has already descended upon them. RG 02 is thrown into his comrade, and both tumble into the murky water.

The two quickly get up and face off against their new foe. Trash falling into the water can be heard from every which way. The two look towards each other.

"We're going to have to like, fight bro."

RG 02 nods.

"We can so do this bro. This thing won't know what hit em."

RG 02 nods once again. "Yeah. You ready?"

RG 01 nods his head. "Yeah bro."

The noise gets louder. The shape that ambushed them burst through another mountain of trash.

"Like, perish and stuff!"

And the two charged.

* * *

A short skeleton with a heavy blue jacket, shorts, and a pair of pink slippers stands in front of Adrain Shephard smiling. How a skeleton can smile, Adrian doesn't known. Quickly seeing the rifle pointed its way, the monster brings up both of its boney hands to defuse the situation.

"Woah there mister. Is that how you greet a new friend?"

Chara puts her hand on the barrel of Adrian's M4, and slowly pushes it down.

"Hey, Adrian, just play it cool. Remember what you promised Toriel?"

Looking into her eyes, Adrian can see the desperation in them, so slowly, he lowers his rife. Looking back at the skeleton shows that the monster has put its hands down, and was now sporting a larger more genuine smiling at him.

"See, no one needs to fight. Anyways, I'm Sans. Sans the Skeleton. So what's your name friend?"

Adrian hesitates to answer for a second, but seeing the look in Chara eyes shows that it likely he should at least be a little friendly towards the monster. Even if Shephard suspects that he was the one who threw the bone. So forgoing his earlier suspicion and paranoia, Adrian responds.

"I'm Adrian. HECU, US Marine Corp."

"A soldier huh? Do you greet everyone by pointing a gun at them?"

Adrian doesn't respond.

The mood suddenly changes. Tension rises. The orbs of light within the skeleton eye sockets are gone, leaving them empty and devoid of any sort of illumination. The smile that always been on its face is also absent. And in its place is a frown.

"Because it sure seems like it."

Chara freezes as she hears this.

' _No no no NO. God dammit Sans, even when I'm trying to save people you won't ever let things go my way'_

Adrian, not liking where this is going, tenses up and points his M4 in the skeleton's general direction. Already he can feel Sparky and Spitball shaking his backpack ever so slightly.

"So, LV 26 huh? How many people did you have to kill to get so high Adrian. 50? 100? _1000?_ " He pauses.

Adrian tenses even more, but he keeps his anger in check. No point in taking the bait. He'll just let him talk, then when he gets the chance, he'll explain himself. If that doesn't work then he'll try to outrun him. And if that doesn't work…

" _I only ask that you avoid killing the other Monsters."_

He wouldn't have a choice then, would he?

Sans continues to speak. "I'm afraid I can't let you continue on Adrian. You're too much of a risk. To Snowdin, to the Underground." The skeleton raises his hand, and the sound of a bone whizzing through the air can be heard coming from behind Adrian. Thinking quickly, he rolls out of the way and narrowly avoids the speeding bone that threatened to impale him. However as he gets back up and aim at the skeleton, he notices yet _another_ bone flying straight for his chest. Unlike last time, he doesn't have enough time to dodge nor does have his rifle fully trained on Sans. So the bone ends up going straight towards his chest.

Now normally, the bone would have impaled him and left Adrian bleeding out where he stands. However, in this instance his armor ends up saving him once again certain death.

The Powered Combat Vest, or PCV for short, is one of the greatest inventions in modern times in Adrian's opinion. While some would say he biased due to the fact it saved him multiple times through Black Mesa, Adrian would point out the many groundbreaking features in the PCV that are not seen in many other armor systems in the world. First, the vest is able to repair itself using a brand new type of carbon nano tubing and nanobots that are able to repair most damages to the vest itself. However the more groundbreaking feature is the shield.

Based off the same shield used by the HEV suit found in Black Mesa, the shield is able to absorb most of the force of any outside substance, weather it be radiation, plasma, or kinetic energy. Some of the force still get through, meaning it's more of any extra piece of body armor without the added weight. However the more force taken by the shield, the more energy is used by the PCV to power it. The same goes for the self repairing feature of the PCV. More damage to the vest, more excess energy is taken from the vest itself. If there is no energy left in the suit, the PCV is left without the shield and auto repair function. Of course, this doesn't make it worthless without energy. The vest can still take on the full force of a 50. Cal under the right circumstances. All functions will automatically restart once power is reintroduced to the vest.

So with all of these factors combined, along with the fact that he was hit in his chest -the point were the shield is the most powerful - the bone merely bounced off his protect shield, causing large blue sparks to fly off from the point of impact. It still knocked the wind out of him, and he had to take a step back so he wouldn't fall flat on his ass but he was alive.

"I will however give you _one_ chance to prove that you aren't a bad guy. And when I say one chance, I mean it. You kill even a single monster…" His right eye socket burst into a blue flame. "You will have _bad time_."

And before he could even raise his weapon, he was gone.

' _Teleportation'_

"That never happened before…"

Looking over to Chara shows her in a state of shock. While it is not that obvious at first, Adrian didn't survive a month in a nation in civil war, nor an alien invasion by being unobservant.

"Chara." Adrian asks slowly. "What the hell just happened?"

She looks over to him, and he can tell that she's currently arguing with herself whether or not to tell him _something_. After a few seconds, she seems to have come to a decision if the look on her face is anything to go by.

"Adrian…" Her voice, once always so calm now have a slight shake to it. It's not that noticeable at first, but it's there. She good at hiding her emotions Adrian will admit.

' _What the hell is going on here?'_

"When we get to Snowdin, there's something I need to tell you. I've been hiding something from you."

"Chara… What's going on?"

She hesitates. "Please, Adrian, I can't tell you here, not out in the open. I don't feel comfortable here."

"I thought-"

"I don't feel _comfortable_ here Adrian. I know no one should be able to hear me but…"

A gloved hand makes it way onto her shoulder.

"Chara, it's fine. I need you to calm down and focus. We don't have to discuss anything here, but please, tell me what did Sans mean by LV 26, and how the hell he knows about how many people I've killed. Please."

She breaths. How she does that without lung, again, Adrian doesn't know.

"Come on. Let's get out of here. The sooner we get to Snowdin, the better." She quickly walks away from him, preventing Adrian from seeing her reddening face. He quickly catches up and fall in line behind her.

After walking by some type of watch-post with a lamp next to it, the pair make it to a crossroads. To his right the path leads to a river and a sign is posted above the path in front of him.

**Snowdin**

However before he can move on, Adrain see a box below the sign. Walking up to the large box Chara speaks up.

"This box carries your stuff. It saves what ever you put in it. The box will also appear in a few other places as well, with everything you put in it."

A certain box from a video game that Towers always made everyone play at base comes to Adrian's mind.

' _Before Black Mesa.'_

Shaking his head, Adrian opens up the box. His eyes widen as he view the contents in the box.

"Holy shit."


	8. Snowdin

"Speech"

' _Thoughts'_

" _Past speech and Gman"_

" _ **other"**_

* * *

' _Damn it Sans. The one time you intervene during a run!'_ The ghost thought nervously to herself as Adrian rolled out of the way of one of San's attacks. ' _Do you not realize that this_ _ **isn't**_ _Frisk, you brain dead asshole?'_

Before she can further stress about the situation, she notices that another bone is heading in Adrian's direction. Already she can tell that the marine doesn't have the time to dodge the speeding projectile, nor the protection against something going so fast. While he does have some vest on, it looks too slim to block such a large projectile. So Chara can only watch at it comes closer to the young soul, expecting it to impale him.

Only it doesn't.

Instead, Chara watches as the bone bounces off of Adrian's vest, knocking him back as large blue sparks fly off from the point of impact. Widening her eyes, Chara can only stare at the marine as she tries to comprehend what just happened.

"I will however give you _one_ chance to prove that you aren't a bad guy." Sans interjects, cutting her off from her thoughts. "And when I say one chance, I mean it. You kill even a single monster…" The comedian's right eye burst into his signature blue flame. "You will face _judgement_." And then he was gone, leaving the two alone once again in an uncomfortable silence.

"That never happened before." The ghost of the Underground said to herself, momentarily forgetting that Adrian is right next to her.

"Chara?" He asks. "What the hell just happened?"

' _What the hell is going on?!'_ Chara thought to herself. Everything has been going so differently, it's maddening. After so much time going through the same process of pacifism, and genocide, the ghost can only take so much change all at once. Not only that, she doesn't even know _why_ everything is suddenly changing around her. She's only been getting useless hints from an unknown third party as more and more questions pile up unanswered. Not only that but she doesn't know how long it'll take before the stress of not knowing everything makes her snap. So, she decided, she is going to have to confront the root cause of it all. Adrian Shephard.

Now she knows that he might not fully trust her, not completely, nor will he understand why everything changing would be such a big deal. So she's going to have to take a risk. A big risk.

She has to tell him about the reset.

There's one problem with this detail however, he will most likely have questions. Questions she won't want to answer, but she needs to know. So, she'll tell him about the monster that she was once was.

"Adrian..." She hesitates for a second as doubt spreads through her mind, but quickly she squashes such thoughts, and with DETERMINATION in her eyes she continues. "When we get to Snowdin, there's something I need to tell you. I've been hiding something from you."

"Chara… What is going on?"

"Please, Adrian, I can't tell you here, not out in the open. I don't feel comfortable here." While she might be a ghost, that doesn't mean she'll just spill everything in the open, especially not something so important.

"I thought…" He tries to speak, before he's cut off by Chara.

"I don't feel _comfortable_ here Adrian. I know no one should be able to hear me but…"

A gloved hand makes it wall onto her shoulder, cutting her off.

The first thing she notices is how _warm_ it is. ' _I can feel his hand!'_ She realizes as warmth radiates from his hand and onto her shoulder. _`Why the hell can I feel his hand?! I could never feel Frisk, so why him?'_ She thinks as the strangeness of the situation falls onto her.

"Chara, it's fine." He speaks, not noticing her inner turmoil. "I need you to calm down and focus. We don't have to discuss anything here, but please, tell me what did Sans mean by LV 26, and how the hell he knows about how many people I've killed. Please."

It's at this point this point Chara realizes that she can still feel his hand on her shoulder, making all of her previous thoughts disappear as non existent heat rises to her face. Quickly she walks away to avoid him from seeing anything and prompts him to follow.

"Come on. Let's get out of here. The sooner we get to Snowdin, the better."

The two continue their walk down the path, passing by both of the watchposts, and stopping by the intersection with the box that she remembers from every other reset.

"This box carries your stuff." She points to said object. "It saves whatever you put in it. The box will also appear in a few other places as well, with everything you put in it."

The marine nods, opening the box to view its contents inside and possible put his ammo away.

"Holy Shit."

Now Chara would say that an overreaction to seeing a rubber glove, but at this point, she's not even sure if the glove is even still there. It's been over 20 years since the box was last there, for everyone else at least, and with everything else going on, she wouldn't be surprised if it was a new weapon for Shephard. Hell it might even be from the surface.

Bringing his hands into the box, the marine takes out and brings out, as she expected, a weapon.

Or at least she assumes it's a weapon. It nothing like she's ever seen before. More like an alien cannon compared to the rifle holstered on Adrian's back. Green in color, and with many exposed tubes and wires, the thing gives off an impression that it wasn't exactly fully finished. Interestingly, the weapon is split between two segments, the cannon and the grip, with both being connected by an exposed blue core. A vertical grip with the trigger below it is located on its underside and a large stock is located in the back with another horizontal grip on its left side. Above said horizontal grip is a screen that can be seen on the left side the main of the weapon. With Adrian shifting it around in his hand, Chara is able to get a better view of the front and right side of the weapon. The right side is very much the same as the left, with the exception of even more exposed wiring and tubing. The barrel of the cannon however is much fearsome. With four "mandibles" with a spike surrounding the exit port where she assumes some type of projectile is shot out from.

"Adrian… What the hell is that?"

"A Displacement Cannon." The marine says, with untold amounts of awe in his voice.

She doesn't respond, instead she crosses her arms, still waiting for a full explanation.

"It's a prototype weapon from the facility I was fighting in before I came here." The marine continues. "It can fire a portal that sends whatever it touches, or the user, to another dimension."

The ghost gives a deadpan stare as a response. "Okay… but what is it doing here?"

A moment of silence passes between the two, before a soft reply is heard from Adrian. Barely audible to Chara

"I don't know."

"..."

"Anyways, would it be safe if I put my ammo in here. Since you said it moves throughout the place, I'm assuming it's magic and that no one else can get into it. Right?

Chara nods.

"Okay then."

She doesn't say anything as Adrian turns around and takes ammo out of his backpack and starts to place it in the box, leaving him with 1 40mm grenade, 2 magazines for his M4, and another 4 for his sidearm. The marine zips up his now empty backpack, sans the aliens, and turns to Chara once again.

"How much further until we reach Snowdin?"

She shrugs, "not long, a 5 minute walk at most." The ghost points further down the path. "There are guards up ahead however, so that might add another 10 depending on how many we encounter."

Falling in behind the soldier, the pair make their way down the path once more. It's not long until they meet another monster. Doggo to be exact.

"Who's there? Did someone move." The dog monster spoke from his watchpost, causing Adrian to freeze. "I can only see moving things," it continues as it took in its surroundings. "If something was moving… for example, a human…"

The marine stayed still.

"Don't move and you'll be fine." The ghost motions to Doggo, still in his post. "He can't see you if you don't move."

The marine nods, "Yeah, I think he made that very clear." His hand slowly moves to the pipe wrench on his person.

"AHA! I KNEW SOMETHING WAS THERE."

Adrian quickly brings up his trusty weapon of choice as a sword with a blue glow surrounding it speeds towards him. Thinking quickly, he smacks the pointed end of the weapon away from him at the last second, causing it to fall harmlessly onto the snow-covered path.

"Fuck!"

"Adrian, don't move!" The marine's companion shouts from behind him as yet another sword makes it way to him.

Acting on instinct honed from hours upon hours of combat and even more training, Adrian promptly ignores the advice given to him by Chara, and instead tries to roll out of the way of the incoming attack. Unfortunately, the sword maneuvered itself mid-flight to adjust for the marine's sudden movements. Getting out of his roll and back onto his feet, Shephard is meet with the sword going straight to his heart. Luckily, his PCV came in handy once again, absorbing the kinetic energy of the thrown weapon through its shielding system. Sparks fly off from the point of impact as Shephard is pushed back.

Not wanting to stay idle, the marine quickly runs towards the monster dog, hitting another sword away.

"Adrian! Don't move when he throws another weapon!"

The marine stops as another sword falls harmless against the snow. "It's kinda too late for that." Another glowing sword fall onto the ground.

"Just trust me!"

So, against all of his training and better judgement, Adrian drops his arms to his side and grits his teeth as the fast moving projectile coming his way gets closer and closer until it makes contact.

Expecting to be skewed, the young marine widen his eyes in disbelief as the sword _phrases through him_ , bypassing both his armor, and his body without leaving even a scratch.

"Where did the human go?" The dog looks around, clearly confused by the lack of movement.

"Pet him!"

To distracted and confused to question Chara, Adrian lunges for the monster and roughly pats the dog on the head.

"I've been petted! Patted? Pet? Doesn't matter, this requires more treats!" The dog monster, without any warning, jumps into the watchpost he came out of, ignoring the utterly bewildered marine in favor of the dog treats littering the watchpost floor.

"Good job out there" Adrian ghostly companion walks ahead of him. "I knew you could do it."

"Am I going to have to pet every monster I encounter Chara?" The ghost keeps on walking. "Chara…?"

* * *

"Hey human! Can you guess my favorite cereal?... FROSTIES!" A monster the size of a small child and the shape of a snowflake shouted, as it launched ice shurikens at the lone marine, who dodged them effortlessly. Compared to the alien hornets, plasma and lighting thrown his way, the ice shurikens might as well have moved in slow motion to the corporal.

"Kid, just go home. I'm not fighting children."

"Shut up human! You won't be talking much longer after your _dead_!" Another wave of shurikens are thrown Adrian's way.

"Just give the kid a scare and he'll leave," Chara said, leaning up against a tree.

Dodging the shurikens, the marine puts away his pipe wrench.

"Ha! Too scared to fight human? You _shriving_ in fright?" The monster smiles.

Only to go pale as the human takes out a _very_ large pistol.

"Kid, go home," the marine brings his standard issue Desert Eagle up, "or else."

The Snowdrake, now terrified beyond belief, flees from the armored human soldier as it realizes just how close to death it came today, leaving behind a few golden coins.

"So Adrian." The marine puts away his pistol, holstering it on his thigh. "I almost forgot to ask earlier, but how did you survive San's bone attack? Or even the swords?"

Adrian turns to the girl, and points to his chest.

"My armor has a shield that deflects most harmful substances, radiation, toxins, electricity, plasma, along with any fast moving projectiles."

The girl gets off from the tree, and walks next to the marine as they move forward down the path. Looking at his vest for a second, Chara ask, "does that mean your invulnerable?"

Adrian chuckles as he picks up the gold on the ground and hands it to Spitball in his backpack. "I wish. No, I'm not invulnerable. My Powered Combat Vest, PCV for short, has a battery that powers the shield. Why do you think I was near the outlet at Toriel's for so long?"

The girl doesn't respond. "The more damage it takes, the more power is taken from the vest. Right now I'm on 35% power. San's bone did a lot more damage then I was expecting, bringing me down to 55% and the sword draining another 20."

"So are you like special forces?" Chara ask, curiosity in her eyes.

"Kinda. I'm part of the HECU, or Hazardous Environment Combat Unit. As the name implies, we're deployed to highly hazardous environments. We're still marines however, first and foremost however... Semper Fi..." Remorse can be heard in Adrian's voice as he said that last bit of information.

It wasn't long before the pair were stopped by a dog in a knights armor. The monster makes a barking sound before lunging at the marine with a sudden burst of speed with it's long sword held high, causing Adrian to instinctively push Chara out of the way and dodge at the very last second.

"Rude!"

Ignoring Chara for a second, the marine takes a stance with his pipe wrench, and gets ready for the dog monster knight thing to lunge at him again.

As if on cue, the monster swings it's sword in a broad stroke, intending to cut the marine in half. Again, Adrian dodges the attack, and brings down his wrench on the dog, only for it to bring up it's large shield to block. The wrench impacts the shield with a loud _bang_ as metal meets metal. Quickly disengaging and backing up to dodge another swing from the creature he glances over to see Chara sitting on a fallen tree swinging her legs around and watching the two fight.

"So how do I get rid of this guy?" The marine shouts as he dodges another swing of the long sword.

"I'm sure you can take him." The girl smiles with faux innocence "You don't need someone holding your hand throughout the entire Underground, do ya?"

"Fine, damn ghosts never lending a hand." The marine mutters the last part.

Running forward, the marine swings his wrench overhead, causing the dog to bring up it's shield to dodge the oncoming projectile, only for Adrian to change his aim towards the long sword poking out from behind the monsters defenses at the last second. The two collide, causing a clang of metal, as the sword gets stuck in the mouth of the wrench. Using this to his advantage, the marine yanks the pipe wrench back, bringing the sword with him and out of the monster's reach. Too shocked to properly respond, the dog can only watch as it's only offensive weapon falls harmlessly out of reach.

With it now almost completely disarmed, Adrian prepares to bash it's shield away as well, only to see the monster take a step back in fright. The monster turns around and flees the scene, but not before Adrian call out to it.

"Hey!" The monster turns around for a second, expecting another attack, only to be confused as the human tosses its sword back to it.

"You forgot your sword."

The dog, looking at its sword, looks at the marine for a second before it starts to wag its tail and bark in excitement.

"Now get going."

The dog turns around and flees down the path, leaving the pair alone.

The sound of clapping comes from behind Adrian, causing him to turn around and see that it's Chara on the tree trunk.

"Encore, encore!"

Giving a mock bow, the marine replies with a simple "thank you."

The pair continue their march down the beaten path, bypassing a number of odd contraptions built onto the floor. Some look like pressure plates with X's and O's on them, while others look like LED tiles that are turned off. Perplexed by the strange contraptions on the ground, Adrian turns to Chara and ask her what these things are.

"There 'puzzles,'" the girl makes quotation marks as she says this. "There's a skeleton that likes to put them down to capture any humans that make their way down here."

The marine vaults over a fallen tree trunk, while Chara phrases right through it.

"Sans?"

"No, his brother actually."

Making their way down a slight slope, the pair end up being halted in their tracks as they find their path blocked by waist high spikes. The treeline around them stops right before the spikes, and instead end with a sudden dip, making the spikes the only way forward. Looking around once again to see if there's any other way to get by, the marine eventually sighs to himself before going in between the spikes like he did back in the Ruins. Looking back shows his travel buddy phrasing through it yet again.

The pair continued walking further down the path, however they are eventually stopped once again by a pair of monsters. However, these two, while still wearing the same knightly armor, also wear hoods covering their canine features. The pair also are brandishing two very large halberds, causing Adrian to instinctively reach for his pistol. While Adrian understand he only have limited ammo, he also does not want to have another prolonged fight, especially against _two_ combatants. The marine aims the pistol at the couple before they get a chance to speak, and fires the weapon. Two loud _bangs_ followed by the sound of two halberds falling harmlessly onto the ground echo across the forest.

The couple are shocked at first, one moment the pair are about to stop this trespassing human from going any further, and next thing they know their weapons are on the floor with the human carrying a gun. The two slowly regaining their senses, back away slowly from the green eyed _demon_ in front of them, understanding that they are completely at it's mercy. One of them however walks in front of the other and blocks the marine lines of sight.

"Don't shoot my hotdog, demon!" The one in front said in a deep voice.

Chara visibly flinches.

"He means me." A feminine voice follow after coming from behind the first dog.

Turning his head sideways, the marine lowers his side arm.

"Relax, I'm going to hurt anyone," the marine says in a calm and collective manner. "I'm just a traveler making his way to Snowdin at the moment. I don't want any trouble." The marine gestures to their weapons on the ground. "Sorry for the scare, but again, I don't want any trouble."

"It's no problem Mr. Human," the female dog says, doing a complete 180 in terms of tone. "Just head further down the path and you'll find Snowdin."

"Yeah, what she said." The male gestures down the path. "You can get going, we'll leave you be."

Adrian, suspicious of their sudden change in attitude towards him, holsters his weapon but keeps his hand on it just in case. Walking by the pair, the marine almost shots Dogaressa as she suddenly comes up from behind him.

"You almost forgot your gold Mr. Human."

Now a little bit more on ease, the marine takes the gold coins and waves the two goodbye as he and Chara continue down the path, with him occasionally looking back until the pair are finally out of view. Turning to the girl in green, the marine voices his opinion on the situation.

"That was… Strange."

The girl looks at him. "What was strange?"

"Those monsters back there, they were pretty friendly for people who just got shot at."

The girl shrugs. "It's not that weird actually. Monsters don't really overreact after a fight. This is especially true if you show them mercy." A memory filled with dust flashed through her mind, before she continued. "They'll normally end up helping you and get more friendly once you beat them."

"Even after getting shot at?" The marine asks.

"Um hm."

"Monsters are weird."

After calming down a large knight dog by playing fetch with the large armored mutt, and walking across the bridge the two finally come across a large sign about 2 meters wide with Christmas decorations.

**WELCOME TO SNOWDIN**

* * *

The town of Snowdin was alive with activity this day around. It was the yearly anniversary of THE holiday. The holiday with no name, and with a simple origin.

Years ago, kids from the town decorate a large deer like monster. The town gathered after that and decided to leave presents for the unnamed monster as a sign of their apology. Ever since then, the town would gather together one day every year to put presents under the town tree for said monster.

Today was that day, while it had no name, the town residents still celebrate it nonetheless, even the newer additions from the city are encouraged to celebrate and forget about the modern problems plaguing the underground for just one night. That's why, in the midst of all of the cheer, the lone human soldier covered head to toe in camo clothing and armor didn't cause the people to panic. Every other day was for panicking. Besides, the human couldn't of gotten in if it was hostile.

Right?

As the Marine looked around the small town of Snowdin, he realized just how small it really was. Compared to the urban center that his orphanage was located in as a child, Snowdin wasn't even a quarter of the size. However that didn't mean anything when it came to diversity however. Monster of all shapes, both humanoid in appearance and other wise, roamed around without a care in the world. It was a bizarre sight for Adrian, seeing so many odd looking creatures in one place. The only other time he experienced something like this was when he found his way to Xen, however that place was so _alien_ , while Snowdin much more _familiar_ with it's log cabins and chimneys puffing out smoke. It's very human, yet foreign at the same time.

Walking into the first shop he sees, Adrian is meet with the strange sight of a humanoid bunny standing behind the counter. Walking up to the monster, the bunny person gives him a look over before returning back to her indifferent stare from before.

"Can I help you?"

Looking over the shop once more, the marine takes stock of what he can buy and what's and the essentials he'll need for his journey to the Capital. Looking at a small fuzzy toy giraffe for a second, the marine turns back to the shopkeeper, the marines pulls out some coins from his backpack, taking extra care to make sure the monster doesn't see the aliens inside.

" _She doesn't seem to be bothered by the weapon at least. Thank god for that.'_

Putting the coins on the counter the marine is about to speak up when Chara beat him to it.

"I would recommend the Bisicle it's very good."

The marine turns to the ghost, giving a look of bewilderment under his mask, before turning back to the shopkeeper again.

"One Bisicle please."

"Make sure to get two!"

Adrian turns to the ghost once again, causing the monster bunny to raise an eyebrow. After a second of just staring at Chara, the marine sighs.

"Make that two."

The woman nods before heading off into the back. Not long after the shopkeeper is returning with two Bisicles in hand. Giving the two treats to Adrian, she regards the human in front of her.

"That will be 30G."

After giving the money to the shopkeeper, the two depart the shop. However, before the marine can continue, Chara grabs his hand and drags the marine into the building next to the shop, named simply, Snowed Inn. The pair go through the door to again be meet by a humanoid bunny, however unlike the last one, this one seems more presentable with a stylized dress and brushed white fur. A far cry from the disheveled purple bunny next door.

"Hello. Welcome to Snowed Inn, Snowdin's premium hotel, would you like to rent a room for only 80G?"

The ghost tugs on Adrian's hand and nods her head yes to the marine. While he might not quite understand why they're renting a room in an inn, Adrian nonetheless doesn't question it and goes along with the idea.

"Yes please."

"Wonderful," the innkeeper beams. "Here's your room key, make sure to bundle up!"

Taking the room key and having Chara lead the way upstairs, the pair eventually make it to the room. Opening the door, the pair are greeted with a small one person sized bed on the left hand side of the room, with a nightstand to it's right and a large table to the south of the large lamp in the right hand corner of the room. Still not understanding why the two needed a room, the marine turns to the ghost sitting on the bed.

"Chara, why did we buy a room?"

The girls gives off a sudden glare, doing a complete 180 in terms of attitude. "Did you already forget? You wanted to know about what's going on here right? In the Underground?"

"Yeah but I don't see why we need to buy a room. So what's going on here Chara? I won't pretend I've known you that long, but their are some things that seem off with you. I feel like you're keeping something from me. I didn't want to pry at first, but after the fight with Sans, I need to know what I should expect going on."

The marine takes off his helmet and respirator, before turning to the ghost again, staring into her blood red eyes. "Chara, what is going on here?"

The ghost stares right back into his bright green eyes, not taking her gaze off for even a second.

"Adrian, what do you know of time travel?"


	9. The Truth

"Speech"

' _Thoughts'_

" _Past speech and Gman"_

" _ **other"**_

* * *

"Adrian, what do you know about time travel?"

The marine raises an eyebrow at the question. Did he hear her right? Is he finally losing his hearing? Last time Adrian checked, his hearing was fine. So it wasn't that. Maybe it's a joke, he thought to himself. However, he doesn't have that much hope with how serious she looks.

' _So is that the secret? But what does time travel have to do with anything?'_ He wondered.

"I know what it is, yes." The marine answers honestly, still not having a clue about what time travel has to do with anything.

"And I've told you about the humans that have fallen before you. The six Souls held by the King as well." The ghost closes her eyes, before opening them once again. "I lied about that. There weren't six humans that fell in, there were seven."

Again, the marine raises his eyebrows even more.

"Her name was Frisk. She wasn't that much younger then I when she fell. About 16. She fell in, and like you, her Determination revived me in a sense, however, I was so much weaker at the time. I couldn't talk to her, nor could I feel a single emotion. All I could do was watch as she went through the Underground. She went through the Ruins without killing a single soul. A true pacifist at heart."

Her voice becomes a little shaky at the end, but nonetheless she continues.

"Unlike you, she was found by Toriel right after Flowey attacked her. She lead Frisk through for some time, and then left her to her own devices in the Ruins. She eventually came to Toriel's house, and like you, she was offered a place to stay, she refused of course, wanting to get to the surface. Toriel didn't want her to go however. She promised she wouldn't let anyone go through the Exit. She didn't want anyone to get hurt, especially Frisk. But Frisk was Determined. Toriel would attack her to try to get her to prove to herself that she wasn't weak. Frisk denied. Eventually Toriel was tired out, and Frisk proceeded beyond the exit."

Adrian, still listening, takes a seat beside Chara on the bed.

"She meet Sans, and her brother, both of whom were really friendly to her."

"Unlike me." The Corporal interjects.

"And for good reason." The girl says suddenly. "Anyways, she meets with them, some shenanigans ensure, but then, she found herself facing one of the Royal Guards. Long story short, she died. Couldn't even dodge the first attack sent her way."

"But then, something miraculous happened. Time went backwards, and next thing I know, she's a few minutes behind from where she died, right in front of a floating star. She encountered a few of them, but neither I nor she knew what they did until then. So she continued, and she died again. And that trend went on for her entire journey through the Underground. She would continue, die, and then she would continue again with her memories from her last death intact, with no one none the wiser."

Smiling, Chara continues. "Throughout it all however, she didn't kill a Soul. Not once. But when she got to the king. She died again, and again, and again. She eventually gave in and decided to fight. She won after dying over and over again, but in the end, she spared him."

"Now the next part is a little hard to believe, but Flowey decided then and there was the time to take the Souls. He became powerful, not a God as he needed her Soul, but powerful nonetheless."

Chara shakes her head, remembering how hopeless it was for her _brother_ to beat her. Not with that power she held.

"She won, because unlike him, she had time on her side. It was after this however, something even weirder happened."

' _This entire thing sounds absolutely insane, unbelievable actually. So what could even make this weirder?'_ Adrian thought to himself.

"We were back at the patch of flowers she fell on when she dropped into the Underground. Everything was exactly how it happened before. I couldn't feel anything at the time due to how weak I was, but thinking back to it doesn't make it any less bizarre. There were a few in the Underground that remembered everything, that kept their memories intact, even when Frisk died, Flowey being one of them. But that didn't stop her, she went through it all _again_ , hoping that maybe she could find a way out of this cycle if she tried again."

"She was wrong."

"A cycle began from that point, she go through the Underground, get to the barrier, and then she Reset. She tried everything, but none of it mattered. So, she decided not to go through the Underground and instead live with Toriel." She decided to skip the part about Asriel God form, it didn't matter at that point.

"Time reset once again after a week in the Ruins."

"This all sounds…"

"Unbelievable." The ghost answered for him

"Yeah."

The girl smiles sadly. "You know, I didn't believe you about aliens either, so I understand your disbelief."

"I might be biased, but I think alien invasions and dimension hopping is much more believable than a time traveling teenager." But can he really say that however the marine thought to himself. It's not like time travel is much less believable than everything else he's seen. Alien invasions, and government cover ups, believable. Inter-dimensional travel, and a shady businessman possible pulling the strings to it all. Not so much. Besides, it's not like he's been going through an underground society filled with sentient monsters and _magic_.

"But I've seen quite a lot recently. _Very_ recently, so I'm willing to believe this for now."

The girl smiles.

"I'm guessing me coming here kinda destroyed this cycle? Is that what your getting at?"

The smile quickly falls. She looks away from the marine, finding a sudden interest in the floor.

"In a way, yes. But that's not all. There's something you need to know about me. With how out of the loop everything is, I don't know what to expect next, so it's only right if you hear this from me."

The girl turns to him, her eyes devoid of all emotions except one.

Regret.

"Adrian, I'm a murderer." The marine looks to her as his mind tries to take in the information he's she just gave him. It's not long before his brain finally comprehends what she said. He looks back to her, his face morphed into one of confusion.

"Explain."

A statement, not a question.

Chara looks over to the wall, before continuing her story.

"Frisk got tired of fighting so many monsters over and over again. So, she decided that she wasn't going to spare them all, no, instead she was going to kill those that kept on attacking her. She thought it was necessary, to stop herself from being attacked over and over again. But as the Reset happened more and more, more monsters died in the Ruins. She left it behind, sparing toriel and many others, and continued the cycle. However unlike last time, more and more monsters died each Reset."

The ghost closes her eyes, shame written all over her face.

"Then, the Genocide happened."

Adrian's eyes widen, as he remembers the girl from his dream. Those cruel eyes, and that emotionless expression on her face.

"I helped her."

His mind stops, the world slows for adrian as he comes to terms with what Chara just said. That can't be right he told himself. He might not have trusted Chara that much, but the revelation still hurts.

He's reminded of the HECU. Of Black Mesa.

"She murdered them all, every single monster, and with each kill, a wave of euphoria went through me. With every Soul slain, another wave of _emotions_ returned. You wanted to know what LOVE stand for? What Sans meant by you being LV 26?" The ghost turns to marine suddenly. "It stands for Level Of ViolencE. With each kill, her EXecution Points rose, and she became more and more powerful. I would reward her with every kill, every LV by pointing her in the next direction for the Monsters. I _lead her to the defenseless monsters, I helped her_." Her eyes turn black as night, as the void leaks out of Chara's empty sockets.

Adrian doesn't move

" _I felt more and more alive with each kill. The more her kill count rose, the more I became alive. It was heaven. I didn't even blink when she murdered Toriel,_ my mom..." Her eyes turn back to back to normal as Adrian's eyes widens. "She killed everyone, and when she reached the barrier, we confronted each other." A single ghostly tear falls down her check. "I can't remember what I said. Maybe I called her out for being a murderer, I don't know. All I do know is that Reset happened again. That didn't stop her, not at all. Frisk changed drastically after that. She killed, over and over again. A new cycle began, one of _Genocide_. After god knows how many Resets however, I changed…"

Her head hangs down low.

"Everything came back all at once. I felt alive again, _human_ even. Empathy, pity, regret, all of these emotions I haven't felt since I was alive. But what became a blessing quickly turned out to be a curse, because now all I could do was watch as Frisk killed everyone, over, and over again. I had to live with that Adrian, I had to live with the knowledge that I helped change this girl into a _demon_ , that I had to watch her as she killed my parents in an endless cycle of violence!" She was shouting now.

It was at this point that Adrian remembered something else from Black Mesa. A memory buried underneath all the other horrors found within that facility. A lone private, surrounded by the bodies of his comrades, and of innocents.

* * *

_The smell of blood was everywhere, or at least that what Adrian imagined as he stared out at the gruesome scene in front of him._

_The bodies of scientists lay in the corner of the room, all dead. However, unlike many other, they sport large chunks of their backs missing. Blood, and spinal fluid leak from the open wounds. Piss drench their pants and the floor as their bladder were released post mortem, turning the ground a yellowish red. Some had entire pieces of their bodies missing, while others had their skulls completely shattered open. Some were old, some were younger. Some were male, others were female. Some had beards, others were clean shaven. One was a ginger, more were blond._

_The scene was sickening, but Adrian has already seen many like this. Already he was numb to the death that greeted his eyes. He's seen worse from the aliens. He looked at the spent bullet casings on the ground._

_It still didn't make it better._

_He walked past the aftermath of the execution, not even bothering to spare another glance at the carnage. He witnessed the aftermath of a slaughter much like this one not a few hours before, right after he found out what his 'brothers' in arms were up to._

_Right after he found out why they were sent here._

_A muffled cry comes from a room he just pasted. Turning his shotgun to the door, the marine leans up against it, listening for the tell tale signs of zombies that he's been running into lately. After waiting for a while he starts to hear the sound of crying coming from the other side. With this new found information, Adrian slowly turns the door handle._

_Another massacre greets him. However, this time, those that lay dead are not scientists, nor even Black Mesa security guards. Instead, he finds that those dead sports the same urban camo as he does, with the same helmets and PCVs that he wears. Unlike him however, they sport the same wounds as the scientist in the other room._

_The first thought that went through his head was that Black Ops must have gotten to them. However that idea is immediately thrown out the window when he sees a HECU marine curled up in the corner, with a spent M4 carbine, a discarded helmet, and respirator not too far from him. Much like Adrian, he also wear the gear that he has on him now. Another soft cry comes from the marine._

_Walking over the corpses, Adrian gets close enough to reach out to the marine._

_The marine looks up at him, tears flow freely from his brown eyes. Blood cakes his otherwise youthful face. Looking over to the young marine shoulder, Adrian spots his rank. Private, he realizes. Couldn't be any older than him._

" _I... killed them." He says in between sobs. "They made me ki… kill them. I… couldn't stop myself. They said it was our orders. That… They deserved it." Another wave of tears hit the blood covered ground, mixing the two liquids together._

" _They said we had to… go find others. I couldn't. I didn't want to. I…" He looks away from Adrian and to the dead marines in the room._

" _I killed them too." He whispered._

_Adrian doesn't speak._

" _I'm sorry corporal. Oh god I'm so sorry Davis, Harrison, Charlie." His voice becomes more quiet with each name. More tears washed away the blood on his face and fell within the puddle underneath him._

" _I'm sorry." the distraught says to the dead, as if his apologizes will reach them._

" _Please end it." He whispers as he looks through Adrian's glowing respirator lenses and into his eyes, a bloodied handgun suddenly in his hand held out to him._

_Adrian can't respond, nor does he move._

_The marine lowers his handgun, curls back into a ball, and continues to cry his eyes out, not even sparing the Corporal in front of him a second glance._

_The sound of a distant explosion is heard, but neither pay attention to it._

_Adrian picks up the marine's helmet, the name Mendoza etched onto it, and ever so gently, strap it on the crying private's head. A gloved hand pats the marines shoulder and gives a reassuring squeeze. He turns around, back to the carnage in the room and slowly walks away from the private._

_Corporal Shephard makes it to the end of the room and walks through the door, however not before looking back to the crying soldier on the far side of the room. He turns the lock, so no one from outside can get it, and shuts it close._

_After taking but just five steps, he hears the sound of a handgun going off from behind him. He doesn't turn around. Instead he keeps on going, wondering why he couldn't save private Mendoza._

* * *

"Then I had to watch her go through it _again_! OVER AND OVER SHE MURDERED EVERYONE AND IT"S ALL MY FAULT ADRIAN!" She's all but shouting now with tears falling freely down her face.

"EVERY FUCKING RESET I SEE HER KILL, ANd all I wanted was for it to E…" She stops as she starts to sob uncontrollable.

An arm wraps around her, and she instinctively clings onto the marine and buries her head into his PCV, causing her cry to become muffled. Another gloved hand makes it way to her back, and gently starts to rub it in a calming manner.

"I'm responsible for their deaths Adrian."

A memory goes through the corporal's head uninvited. A picture of that same girl from his earlier dream, Frisk he realizes, walking down a yellow hallway illuminated the light coming from the many windows, a red glowing knife in her hand. Pillars surround her on both sides, and directly ahead of her is Sans, his eyes empty.

" _You kill even a single monster… You will face judgement."_

Not a second later, the vision is gone, with no evidence of it ever being there in the first place. Chara is still clinging to him as he strokes her back in his best attempt to calm her down. While it's working, he can still tell she's distressed.

"They sent us into Black Mesa with telling us anything." He says suddenly, causing her to look up at him.

"Our only warning was our sudden change in our training routine but a few days prior. The name Black Mesa was thrown around, but nothing was concrete at that point. I came in the second wave, and even then we all still thought it was going to be some babysitting job. Next thing we know, the Osprey next to us was blown out of the sky by a flying manta ray."

A voice rings in both Chara's and Adrian's head.

" _Holy shit! Goose 3 is down, Goose 3 is down!"_

"Then we were hit."

Memories flood back to Adrian. The sergeant falling out of the VTOL, the sudden crash, then darkness as unconsciousness took him over. The sudden sound of battle comes right after, and then he's greeted the memory of his squad mates fighting tooth and nail against the alien invaders. One looks over to him, watches him as he slowly loses consciousness again. Purple shackles, and an older face compared to the rest of those that he fight later on.

While momentarily confused by that particular part of the memory, he continues nonetheless.

"I was saved by a bunch of the local scientist, who then proceeded to heal me after I went unconscious. I thanked them, got my PCV back, and promised I be back to get them, or at the very least send someone their way to retrieve them."

He takes a deep breath.

"I fought a bunch of aliens, regrouped with the rest some remaining units, and made my way to the evac zone. I didn't make it, and got left behind. Then I found out why everything was so quiet before we got to Black Mesa."

He stares into Chara eyes, and sees the curiosity in them, meaning that he was distracting her from her grievances for the moment.

"We were sent in as a clean up crew, for both aliens… and human…"

A single tear falls down his check.

"My brothers, no, my _family_ were murdering innocents. I found some many defenseless scientists and security guards executed. Even in the midst of an alien invasion…"

"Humans still found a way to kill each other." Chara says silently.

The marine nods. "And then the Black Ops came. They murdered everyone. Scientists, security guards and marines, it didn't matter. But I look back at that and I think back to a particular soldier. Mendoza."

A far away look befalls on his face.

"Didn't know the guy, but I saw what he did. Bodies of scientists all shot up piled neatly into a corner. He didn't want to do it Chara, but his squad told him to, said that they were orders. So he killed them. Couldn't live with himself however, so you know what he did?"

The ghost doesn't answer.

"He killed his squad, couldn't bear to repeat such an action. Nor could he live with himself after such an event." The last part was barely a whisper.

"He killed himself," The ghost stated, finishing the story for Adrian.

He doesn't respond at first.

"Adrian?"

"He reminds me of you in a way," the marine says suddenly, causing Chara to raise an eyebrow and tilt her head in confusion.

"You didn't want to see them all dead, did you Chara?"

"No." She answers weakly.

"You weren't yourself, not completely. You helped her because you had no other choice. Mendoza was forced into the situation, you were forced to help her as you were someone else."

"Adrian…"

"I don't blame you Chara. Your not a murderer, not to me, you just simply had no choice as a higher power forced your hand, just like Mendoza."

A silence falls between the two. Another tear falls down Adrian's cheek, and a ghostly tear falls down Chara's. Soon however, Chara similes. A true genuine smile.''

"You sure know how to help a girl out Adrian, don't you?"

"I try my best."

The two fall back into a comfortable silence as they ponder the new information the two have discovered about each other. Adrian thinks on why he decided to tell her about Black Meas, but in the end, he doesn't care. He saved someone. Not in a physical sense, and maybe not even completely, but he feels like the two have established a bond strong enough to stop the ghost from falling into despair, to trust each other through their journey through the Underground.

"We're fucked up people aren't we?" He says suddenly.

The ghost giggles.

Chara might not know why she decided to bring up such memories, Adrian seemed like he was going to believe her anyways, so it's not like she had to support her claim. Nonetheless, she feels… happy in a sense. Maybe things will be better going on. Things might have changed but maybe not in a bad way.

They both know however, that they will make it through the Underground.

A voice interrupts the quiet. It reverberates deep in Chara's head much like a shout in an empty warehouse, bouncing around.

" _ **Watches~ He watches."**_

* * *

"Hiya Mr! Did you have a good sleep?" The bunny from before stands behind the counter, hands behind her back and a car salesman smile plastered onto her face.

Adrian, with his respirator and helmet back on, nods.

"Woah! Really? Because you were only up there for like half an hour." The smile doesn't falter, nor does the marine respond to the statement. The monster takes a bag of coins from behind the counter and passes across to Adrian.

"Here's your money back. You can pay me if you're going to stay overnight."

A little caught off guard, the marine doesn't make a move to pick up the money.

"Just take the money Adrian."

Following as the ghost commands, he takes the money, nodding in thanks as he does so and promptly leaves in tow with Chara in tow.

Not much has changed that much in the thirty minutes time the pair have been inside the inn. The only real difference is that the snowfall has increased in intensity. However not by much, as evident by the multitudes of monsters still outside celebrating around the town center and it's 'Christmas' tree.

Walking down the main street, pass an igloo, a library and a few houses, Adrian overhear the conversation of two child sized monsters by the town tree.

"Did you hear about the Dump?" The first asked excitedly.

A monotone "no" voice responds. However the first child either doesn't care for the other's apparent lack of interest, or more likely, didn't get the idea.

"A bunch of my buddies said that there some type of creature hiding in the garbage. They say it hunts monsters for breakfast, and they almost got snacthed up by it too!" The first monster put his hands up in the air, clearly excited about the idea of some creature ready to eat him.

"I really doubt that." The same monotone voice replies.

"Oh really? Then why are they sending the Royal Guard into the dump if nothing is there? Hmm."

Now that gets Chara's attention. Looking back to Adrian she can tell that the marine is no longer listening to the pair, as he's probably writing it off as just rumors. Chara however, is much more concerned about the prospect of something else being in the Underground. With the arrival of Adrian, and the sudden change in year, the possibility of what could be down here does leave Chara with a pit of anxiety in her nonexistence stomach. What if it's a human who, like Adrian suggested to Toriel, that fallen down from some other unknown entrance to the Underground?

What if it's Frisk?

She shakes her head clear of those thoughts as the pair walk by the skeleton brother's house. Adrian ends up spending a lot of time looking at San's mailbox, filled way beyond what it was meant to handle as usual, before Chara can snap him out of it.

"That's a lot of mail."

The ghost rolls her eyes.

"Didn't he try to kill me earlier too?"

"Yep," Chara says, popping the p.

"Where are we going by the way? I mean I don't mind walking aimlessly until we reach the king buy still."

"The path goes through a cave not far past the brother's house. From there it's a straight path through Waterfall and right to Hotland. And yes, I know, the king is awful with names," the ghost says as she hears a snicker from Adrian.

They make it past the house, but as soon as the cave becomes visible to the pair, the snow starts to pick up in intensity. Snow starts to fall with much more frequency, and the cold wind howls and bites at Adrian's arms, causing a shiver to go through his body. Chara, like always, isn't affected by it, however both Spitball and Sparky curl up in the corporal's backpack to keep themselves warm as the temperature suddenly drops. The Displacement cannon on the marine's back, swings in the high winds, despite it's heavy weight.

With the cave so close in sight, a wave of determination courses through Adrian as he sprints ahead, with Chara close behind him. The marine makes its past the cave's entrance, but continues forward nonetheless. Chara however stops. She doesn't understand why she does, but something nags at the back of her mind, telling her she's being watched.

Turning around, the ghost peers into the blizzard behind her, trying to see if she can spot anything unusual. After a second of searching and finding nothing out of the ordinary, Chara continues forward into the cave, albeit more cautiously of her surroundings as she tries to catch up with Shephard.

Had she looked back out into the storm not a second later, the ghost would have seen the outline of a thin figure holding a briefcase and with piercing emerald eyes, staring at her as she goes further and further into the cave.

* * *

The snow in the cave eventually turns to stone as the pair find themselves out of the sudden blizzard and into Waterfall proper. The sound of water dripping from the ceiling and unseen flowing rivers echo across the cave. Luminescent plant life light the way in a hue of blue. Jagard rocks cut out from the otherwise smooth stone floor, giving those that wish to walk these path an excuse to wear shoes, or any form of foot protection.

A small dinosaur like monster without any arms stands further up the path. The kid has a look of pure excitement on his face as he stands around, clearly on the lookout for something. As Adrian gets closer however, the monster kid beams at the soldier coming behind him, despite the fact that said soldier is heavily armed.

"Hey, you out trying to see Undyne too? She's awesome, I bet she can kick that creature's butt any day! Oh, and don't tell my parents I'm out here." The kid sports a bashful expression as he says that last part.

Looking over to Chara for advice, the marine gets none, so he turns back to the monster kid, with a look of boredom on his features. Not that either the kid or Chara can tell with his respirator covering his face.

"Kid, I would go home. It's not safe to go out alone, especially without your parents parents permission."

"But I want to see Undyne! She's so cool!"

"And I'm sure she wouldn't want to see you hurt." The marine interjects quickly, shutting the kid up. However, the excitement doesn't leave his eyes, nor does he look as if he's going to take the marine's advice anytime soon.

Sighing to himself, Adrian walks ahead of the monster, shaking his head as he does so, and passes another sentry outpost, with snow still on the roof he notices.

"So who's Undyne again?" The marine ask, as he treks through an ankle high river that falls down further into a drop in the cave.

"She's the captain of the Royal Guard. She's extremely skilled, and makes use of magical spears that she can conjure up at will. She has an extreme passion to get the seventh Soul for the king. However she can be befriended if you earn her respect."

Climbing out of the water and heading forwards once again. The pair eventually get to, and go through, shoulder length weeds growing out of the cave floor. Suddenly however, a loud and somewhat high pitch voice cuts through the cave from a ledge above them.

"I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR A WHILE NOW AND THEY HAVEN'T COME BACK."

Quickly, the marine presses his figures against the rock face and shrouding himself in darkness to avoid any wandering gaze.

"Have anyone else tried to get in to the Dump at all while you were there?" A heavy, somewhat muffled, female voice asks without an inkling of emotion.

"NOT AT ALL! EVERYONE TOO BUSY CELEBRATING TO GO ADVENTURING UNDYNE!"

"That's Papyrus." The ghost tells the hidden soldier. "He's not any type of threat."

The sound of heavy plate armor can be heard shuffling around, before the female figure speaks up again. "I wouldn't worry about those two, I'm sure their alright, they can handle whatever down in the Dumps. Besides, there's an actual _human_ coming through here soon, so I want you to head back home, get your brother, and get everyone to safety. Got it?"

Adrian tenses.

"YES UNDYNE! DO YOU WISH FOR ME TO RETURN SO WE MAY CAPTURE THE HUMAN TOGETHER?" The louder male voice asks, childlike excitement and glee clearly present in his voice.

"No, just head back to Snowdin, you've done well enough today Papyrus. Now get going."

Two pairs of footsteps are heard, one heading back from the way Adrian came, and the other closer to his position. The marine tenses up as he brings up his sidearm. A figure peers over the ledge from above him, giving him a good view of them.

A knighted humanoid greets the marines eyes. Two eye sockets, one glowing white and the other dark, scan the caves, looking for him. Heavy plate hang tight against the figure, providing plenty of protection, and great red mane flows freely behind her helmet. A second passes with the figure scanning the cave before she out of view again. Foot falls can be heard getting further and further away before the sound disappears altogether. After waiting another moment to make sure that the figure is gone, he finally get out from the corner and continues forward slowly. It's at that moment that the same monster child from before jumps out of the tall weeds Adrian walked past earlier.

"Wow! Did you see that! Your so lucky, she almost looked in your direction. I wish she could look in my direction!"

Then without warning, the kid just runs off in the opposite direction of Snowdin, but not before tripping over one of the many jagard rocks and falling flat on his face. Adrian was about to help pick the armless monster up, before he was able to do it himself. And with a smile on his face, he ran back again without tripping over.

The corporal could only stare as the kid runs ahead before continuing forward down the path in the same direction as Monster kid.

Jumping over a pair of small rivers and gaps that lead into an endless abyss, the marine takes note of just how beautiful the place he finds himself in is. The water, while not clear, has a light blue hue to it due to the many 'Echo flowers,' as Chara called them, and other such plants illuminating the large cave system while glowing rocks on the walls give the impression of stars in a clear night sky. While he rather not think of Black Mesa, he can't help but think back to Xen when comparing the place. While there are no floating islands filled with hostile alien lifeforms and pools of healing liquid, the general feeling of awe and the atmosphere from the glowing plants and rivers of a blue translucent water gives off a very similar feeling to the alien dimension.

Chara has been helpful filling him in on what he should expect from Waterfall. Already he's passed plenty of bizarre monsters that've attacked him. However he's been doing pretty good at just threatening them with a gun. Or in some cases just outright ignoring them if he has the chance.

"What, afraid your muscles aren't as big as Aagon's? Don't want to embarrass yourself in front of a girl like me~?" The ghost asked, blinking her eyes in a playful manner.

Which had lead to this point.

"I'm not having a flexing competition against a floating... merhorse? Besides, didn't you say that we were suppose to encounter this Undyne already?"

The girl shrugs her shoulders. "I said that she _normally_ encounters Frisk around the bridge we just pasted. Remember, everything's different with you here now." A devilish smile forms. "Now back to that flexing competition."

The marine groans.

So far, everything has been going far too smoothly for Adrian's taste. While yes, they have run into plenty of monsters, none have really threatened Adrian's life. So he's just been collecting more and more gold coins which he would put in his backpack. Since he doesn't have anything to spend the money on, his alien companions have been using the coins to form a makeshift bed in his backpack, giving themselves a well deserved rest after their trek through Black Mesa.

' _Those bastards ate my Bisicle.'_ The marine thought to himself as he takes a bite out of his last piece of pie from Toriel.

While yes, the caretaker did give him plenty of food, his alien companions have taken a bit more than what was agreed on between the three. It still enough to get him through, but it would still be nice if he could get some more food for later, it's not like they need more than _half_.

He swore he could hear the two aliens laughing, or more of crackling considering their biology.

Water leaks from the ceiling of the cave, drenching the marine's gear. However he barely bats an eye. Compared to wandering through sewage, both alien and human, the rain is nothing in comparison. However he still takes an umbrella that he found in a trash can.

He wouldn't want to disturb his alien pets beauty sleep now would he?

As his boots splash against the large puddles beneath them, he looks around to find himself walking by a destroyed statue. The upper most half has collapsed in on itself, however the general structure is still relatively intact. A snout can be seen sticking out of the rubble, with large goat like ears on top of the remaining parts of it's head.

Not noticing the dangerous glint in Chara's eyes as she looks at the structure, the marine continue forwards again with his umbrella held high. Not a few feet further however does he runs into a problem.

"Yo! You have an umbrella? Cool!" Without even asking, the monster kid hiding within the enclave in the cave walls runs out and goes underneath the protection of the umbrella. While Adrian might not mind the fact the kid trying to seek shelter from the "rain," he still finds some annoyance with the fact that the kid is still here and not with his parents like he told him a few times already

"Yo, Undyne is so cool! She beats up every bad guy and like, never loses! Man, if I was a human, I wet my bed every night." The kid laughs.

Adrian, still holding onto the plastic umbrella, looks over to Chara, as if expecting an answer to an unasked question.

"He doesn't know your a human. He's never seen one. Same goes for a lot of monsters actually."

"So one time," the kid continues, "we had a school project to take care of some flowers, and the king - we had to call him Mr. Dreemurr - gave us some of his flowers. So anyways he told us about responsibility and stuff like that and that got me thinking. What if Undyne came to school!"

The marine raises an eyebrow behind his mask.

"She could beat up all of the teachers!"

As the three continued to walk in the "rain," the kid spoke up again.

"Okay, maybe she wouldn't beat up the teachers. She way too cool to do something like that.

The group make it out of the cave and onto a large expansive clifftop. The rocks shimmer on the ceiling, giving the illusion of stars in a clear night sky. Far off in the distance, a city can be seen, with many human looking buildings all surrounding a great castle. Towers and walls surround the interior castle, separating the modern looking high-rises and the main castle structure.

"That's the Capital. And that castle," she points to the castle, " is where's King Asgore is, along with the barrier." Chara spoke.

Shephard nods, taking in the structure and analyzing it in way to find any weak points. The walls, while not that thick, could probably hold off any invaders for a short while, however the towers seems to be the weakest part of the entire structure. That use of high-rises also give plenty of cover from artillery. Not that would be useful underground, Adrian thought to himself. All in all, it's a fairly well defended location, considering it houses the monarch of an entire species, that not surprising.

The group make in to the other side of the clifftop, and into another cave, this one without any water leaking from it's ceiling. They pass by another bin filled with umbrellas, so naturally, the marine puts the piece of plastic away before continuing forward behind Chara, with monster kid in tow. They make it to a rather small shelf. Throwing his body wait up, the marine is able to climb it with relative ease while Chara, despite being a ghost, has to hold onto him to pull herself up. Lucky for the pair, Monster Kid didn't notice.

' _Speaking of the kid.'_

Adrian turns back around only to see the monster child walking back from the way they all came from.

"I'll find another way around!" Quickly, the monster speeds off, but not before falling face first again, and like last time, the kid gets himself up and runs off.

"He's trying to find Undyne." The ghost says.

"I kinda figured."

Going down the path once more, the pair come across a long wooden bridge, with another bridge below that, and further down, a seemingly endless pit.

"Undyne is usually here, so I would be careful lest you fall into the Dump."

The marine takes out his side arm and trusty tool wrench, and with little hesitation walks onto the bridge. Nothing happens as he continues along, scanning the two bridges for the female knight.

An odd noise comes from underneath Adrian causing him to look down. A blue circle of energy materializes underneath his boots, causing him to jump out of it's way. Right as he does so, a large blue spear made of the same energy come jutting out the circle. Looking down, he sees the knight on the other bridge. Thinking quickly, the marine aims his pistol at the figure, but not before he hears that strange sound again, causing him to jump away at the last moment, with a spear where he was before. Seeing that he has no way to get a good shot with the spears constantly coming at him, he decides to book it across the bridge.

The knight follows closely behind him, still causing spears to jut out of out below Adrian's feet, causing him to dodge again and again, throwing off his aim.

' _Shit!'_ Adrian thought to himself as he jumped away from another spear. ' _I got to hand it to her, she's good. Now if only you can stay still for one second.'_

Looking behind him shows him two things. One, Chara is still following him, so no need to worry there, and two, the knight is no longer behind him on the bridge, causing him to stop and pause.

Not a second later, a line of spears jut out from beneath him, causing him to jump forward again and look back to try and find the knight.

The sound of metal footsteps come from behind him.

The marine quickly turns around and aims his side arm at the knight. In response, the knight raises her right hand, causing the soldier to tense up.

"Adrian look out!"

The figure brings down their hand, and the sound of something coming at him from above causes the marine to jump back. A wall of spears come down and cut through the bridge, with another coming in from behind him, cutting off a segment of the bridge.

' _Oh shit.'_

The wood falls beneath him, and he quickly follows. Thinking quickly as he falls into the abyss, he takes his backpack and shield his alien friends from the impact that sure is to come.

His back connects to the floor, and Adrian's world goes black.

* * *

The ghost could only think of how unlikely it was that Adrian would get sent to the Dump in the same way Frisk would, however that quickly evaporates as she's pulled down as well as the distance between the two reaches its limit. Panic comes first, then the realization that she's a ghost comes second. Smacking herself for her idiocy, the ghost falls with but a care in the world, assured that she'll be fine like she always has been.

Her feet connect with the ground, and her world goes dark.

"There's been a lot of suits walking around lately, so try to act busy."

The world fades back into existence, but once again she finds herself in the facility the Adrian told her about. Grey walls surround her, with rubble littering the floor. Pools of some strange green substance along with blood dot are all around her.

The world fades away with a crack of what sounds like electricity, the same sound that she heard from Adrian's arrival.

The world comes back into view and she finds herself for the first time outside on the surface. Looking around shows that's she's currently in a car park to some type of building. Off in the distance, she can see what looks like buildings spread out in a large area.

A miniature sun forms on the horizon where the buildings once where, blinding here temporarily. Opening her eyes, she can see a great wall of flames heading straight for her, causing her to widen her eyes in horror, despite knowing it's not real.

Or at least, it isn't now.

A great _crack_ is heard as the sound from the large explosion reaches her ears. The shock wave comes next, flipping cars, lampposts, and even causing the building behind her to tumble to the ground as if it were made of sand.

The wall of flames get closer, however she notices a figure in front of the parking lot staring straight at her. A suit, briefcase and green eyes, are the only thing she can make out before the wall of flames reaches him, to the point where he's only an outline as the flames consume her next, turning her world hot white once again.

Then, darkness.

" _ **HE is not man… for you he BREAKS, for you~"**_

The voice from the Ruins echo from every direction and no direction at the same time.

" _ **Deceive you… Will deceive you.**_

A horrible _alien_ shriek comes from nowhere.

Then, as if nothing happened, she's standing in front of the unconscious form of Adrian once again.

* * *

_Dust litters the room as the girl he saw from the Ruins, Frisk he remembers, strolls through without a care in the world, a murderous glint in her brown eyes._

" _In this world, it's killed or be killed!"_

_He sees Frisk smiles as she stares off ahead of her and out of Adrian's view._

" _YOUR GONNA HAVE TO TRY A LITTLE HARDER THEN THAT"_

_A flash of a knight, dust flies everywhere._

" _Ah ah ah. Eager as always huh?"_

_Images of a broken machine laying on the ground go through Adrian's head_

" _Hey! What are you doing? B...Back off!"_

A crumpled flower lay dead on the ground as Frisk smiles.

A series of symbols flash before his eyes. Despite never seeing them before, he understands the message completely.

" _ **You aren't suppose to be here"**_

His eyes open.

The feeling of flowers surrounding him gives him a brief sense of deja vu as he remembers his arrival into the Underground. The marine slowly gets up, and looks around. Immediately he can tell he's in some type of garbage dump. Piles of trash and discarded machinery surround him. Up ahead, he can see Chara looking at him with his backpack and pipe wrench in hand. The soldier gets up, albeit slowly and walks over to the ghost. He takes his belongings and finds that both of his alien companions are still okay. His side arm was found next to him and his Displacement cannon was still on his back.

"How long was I out?"

The girl shrugs. "Not long, a half hour at most."

Adrian notices the uncertainty and her voice but decides to not bring it up. Looking around for a way out, he finds that there is only one path as every other one is blocked by mountains of trash.

The two continue on in silence, both trying to make sense of what they saw. As the marine trudges along in the heel high "water," he can't help but to think about the supposed beast that was brought up by those kids back in Snowdin. While he initially discredit as just kids spreading rumors, he might want to rethink his opinions on the garbage _monster_.

His hand hovers over his gun, and he motions for both of his alien companions to be prepared as a sudden sense of unease passes through him. Chara too notices the change in atmosphere and can't help but wonder what is down here.

"There was never anything down here during the Resets, not unless you count the Mad Dummy."

Adrian nods to the ghost and continues forward.

The two round a mountain of trash and come into a clearing. Garbage water still runs through here, however there is a lot more open space. Walls of trash surrounding the clearing on every side but the path Adrian came from and two others. However, that's not what the pair are focusing on.

Their focus is on the dented helmet, and the large amount of dust floating through the air.

"Chara?"

"Yeah."

"Who helmet is that?"

The ghost peers over at it and after a second responds.

"That looks like a Royal Guard helmet. RG 01, or maybe 02 even."

The marine takes out his pistol, and allows Sparky to slither down his left arm.

The pair draw closer to the center of the clearing, giving them a much better view of the helmet on the ground. The helmet looks caved in, as if something hit the face with a tremendous amount of force. Dust can still be seen inside of it, most likely from the previous owner. Looking back to the two paths on the other side of the clearing, the marine ask the ghost what direction they need to go in.

"I don't know."

The marine looks at her.

"I forgot to tell you that the date is also different as well. There so much more trash then I remember being here during Frisk's time."

The marine doesn't say anything.

"Adrian?"

"Somethings watching us."

Before the ghost can respond, the wall of trash next to them burst open as a large shape speeds on through it.

With no time to react, the marine is thrown across the clearing and slams into a large mound of trash. Looking over to his shield, he can see that it's down to 10%. Groning the marine gets out of the pile and looks over to his enemy.

He stops dead in his tracks as shock courses through his body as he takes in what he sees.

Two large powerful hind legs help keep its large body a meter off the ground. It's general shape is that of a Theropod, with a large tail with a hooked claw at the end to keep it balanced, and the legs positioned around where it's center of mass would be. Tiger like stripes and spots adorn the top of body. It's slit-pupiled eyes, black and glossy, are on both sides of it's large head. No neck separates the head and body, as the two combine seamlessly. To top off it's appearance, large red tentacles around its mouth, which itself is full of sharp shark-like teeth.

Adrian doesn't move as his brain tries to come to terms with the fact that one of his old enemies is here, in the Underground.

However, the marine doesn't get much time to think.

A loud alien roar interrupts him and to his horror, Adrian realizes what is going on.

The Bullsquid charged.


	10. Old and New

"Speech"

' _Thoughts'_

" _Past speech and Gman"_

" _ **Other"**_

" **Text/misc"**

* * *

Thinking quickly, the marine rolls out of the alien's path right as it speeds on by him, however his roll is interrupted by the Xenian nicking his left knee as it came by. His shield sparks one last time as he falls into the sewage water. Groaning, Adrian hefts himself up as the Bullsquid crashes into a wall of trash, causing debris to fall all around it. The creature turns around as the marine finally gets himself up. A glance to his right shows his M4 far from him and out of his reach.

His handgun on the other hand is still in its holster.

The Xenian creature emits a crackling growl as it raises its head upwards and charges again. This time, Adrian doesn't move, instead his hand moves as fast as lightning, unholstering his sidearm and bringing up to the Bullsquid heading his way.

A loud _bang_ echoes through the Dump as a .357 magnum round exits the barrel of the Desert Eagle and slams into the creatures head. A spurt of green blood comes out of the rather small wound right above its eye, but other then that, the creature continues forward without pause. Another gunshot rings out and again, the creature is hit and again it continues its sprint. After the third shot, the creature is already on the lone marine, causing him to sidestep the aliens.

The Bullsquid learned that simply rushing it's target would do it no good, so instead of charging straight pass it as it did last time, the creature swings its tail as it goes by, knocking Adrian down onto the sewage water again. A shot of plasma is shot out from Sparky as he falls but it goes wide, hitting a piece of trash instead.

The thing then pulls off a feat unbecoming of it's size as it pushes against its forward momentum and _jumps_ in the air, spinning itself back to the down Corporal mid flight.

Adrian groans as he tries to pick himself back up. A sudden spike of pain goes through his chest as he pulls himself up out of the sewage once again. His PCV now sports a large gash from the Bullsquid's tail. Luckily it didn't go all the way through, but without his PCV's shield, the pain was much worse then it would have been otherwise. A shot of plasma is shot out from his Shockroach companion as he aims his arm at the Xenian creature.

The first few shots miss, while the third and fourth hit the creature head on. Harden skin burns away as the plasma burns on through and electricity courses through its body. It visibly flinches from the pain, but before the fifth shot can land, the creature opens its mouth as a bright green blob of acid comes spewing out it and towards Adrian's direction.

The marine dodges the main projectile, but sprinkles of acid does get on his uniform, burning even more holes in his already burned and destroyed attire.

Before Adrian can react, the thing comes charging at him again. As the creature makes it halfway to the marine, it _pounces_ in the air and comes sailing at him, leaving no time to dodge. It collides with him, feet first, and the Corporal falls to the sewage soaked ground as it's mass pushes him downwards. His handgun falls out of his grips and soars out of view.

Water splashes around him as he makes contact with the ground. Before he can try to move, a large clawed leg much like that from that one famous dinosaur he learned about as a kid pins him down. More and more weight is put on his chest as the creature leans down at him, it tentacles almost touching his respirator. Acid starts to build up in its mouth as it prepares to unleash it on it's prey.

Chara watches from the side lines as the thing pounces on Adrian, pinning him to the ground. Already she can tell that the creature is getting ready to end the marines life as Sparky and Spitball try to conjure up their plasma and acid attacks, but stop as they realize they might harm Shephard as well as the creature. A glint of metal not far from her gets her attention. Looking over, she can see Adrian's pistol lying on a bed of trash. Thinking on her feet, she runs to the weapons and picks it up. She aims it at the creature and pulls the trigger.

Nothing happens.

Why it doesn't fire, Chara doesn't know, but as she sees the creature getting ready to end her partners life, she decided to just hurl the weapon instead.

The creature sees the handgun materialize out of thin air as it leaves Chara's grip and flies through the air. The Bullsquid's brief hesitation gave Adrian the opening that he needed.

Pulling out his combat knife, the marine jams it into the creature's eye, causing it to let out a horrible shriek as it gets off Adrian and stumbles back with it's tentacles flailing wildly around its mouth as acid leaks out.

Adrian, with the reflexes and hand coordination that would make an expert baseball player blush, grabs his handgun by the barrel as it comes flying over to him. Still laying in the sewage, the marine spins the weapon around so he can grab the grip. The marine takes aim with his handgun as he turns on the laser sight, and without any hesitation, fires the weapons second to last round at the injured Bullsquid.

The bullet sails through the small space separating the two almost instantly, and punches right through one of the red tentacles surrounding the creatures mouth, cutting it off completely and keeps on going as it enters the mouth of the creature, taking a few teeth with it. The bullet makes contact with the interior of the mouth, destroying everything it comes in contact with as it makes it way through the soft flesh and through its skull and brain before stopping as it hits the hardern skin that stopped the last few rounds of .357s. The creature stops it's struggles not a second later as all higher brain functions cease, causing it to ungracefully flop to the ground as blood and acid leaks out from its mouth.

No one makes a sound as the creature continues to leak it's bodily fluids into the water, turning it a light green.

Chara feels a sudden rush of euphoria as Adrian's EXP rises from the death of the creature. She quickly shakes the feeling away, it focuses on the marine getting himself off the ground.

"Adrian?"

The girl gets no response as the marine gets himself up and begins making his way to the dead alien in front of him. He brings up his weapon once again and aims at the creature head. A loud _bang_ echoes through the Dump once again as the marine unleashes his last shot onto the creature. Unlike last time, the bullet pierces the skin, and blows a huge chunk of flesh, bone, and brain all over the place.

A click comes from the handgun as Adrian pulls on the trigger again, causing him to lower his weapon. Calmly, he leans down and plucks the knife out of the dead aliens eye. He pauses for a second as he stares at the green blood on the knife, then back to the Bullsquid. Before Chara can say anything, he jams the knife into the eye again without uttering a sound. He repeats the process one more time before getting up and kicking the Bullsquid.

"Adrian."

No response.

"That was one of the aliens, wasn't it?"

Again, no response comes from the marine. Sparky and Spitball both curl around his biceps as he continues to stare at the corpse, not uttering a word. Chara gives him some space, to let him cool down. To regain his bearings. Unknown to her however, the marines mind was completely blank, with the occasional flash of Black Mesa coming up and disappearing as quickly as they appeared.

Chara makes a last minute decision to approach him, forgoing her previous commitment of letting him cool down. Adrian, so caught up in the moment doesn't notice the ghost coming up to him. It's not until a pale hand makes it way to his, cutting off his thoughts as their hands interlock. A comforting squeeze is given, calming the soldiers nerves again. No words were spoken between the two as Adrian regains his bearings.

"That was a Bullsquid."

Chara doesn't respond. Instead she waits patiently for him to continue.

"Their native to Xen. When the aliens first came, it was by accident. A scientist by the name of Gordon Freeman activated a… portal I think?"

" _We've just been informed that the sample is ready Gordon. It should be coming up to you at any moment. Look to the delivery system for your specimen."_ A memory calls out from Chara's mind.

"These guys," the marine gestures to the corpse with his empty gun, "were one of the creatures that came. Maybe more came with the invasion force afterwards, I'm not sure..." A sigh escapes his lips, muffled by his respirator. Another squeeze courtesy of Chara calms his nerves, allowing him to think straight again.

"How are they here Chara? Last time I saw something like them, it was in Black Mesa, in New Mexico. So how is this thing here, in the Underground, halfway across the entire damn _country_? I can only think of two reasons, either it came here with me, meaning I'm responsible for this, or…"

"Or what Adrian?"

The marine turns to the ghost besides him, tears visible behind his lenses. After a moment of silence, he whispers to her. "The aliens won."

* * *

Gaining their bearings after the attack wasn't easy, especially for Adrian. However Chara wasn't faring much better. While she has no sympathy for humankind, the fact that humanity could actually be _gone_ is a thought that fills her with unease. Long ago, she might have been excited with the prospect. Given time, monsterkind could find a way to break the barrier without worrying for humanities reaction. But now she's not sure what to feel about the possibility.

Sliding in a new magazine to his handgun, Adrian tries too tries to reflect on this sudden revelation concerning the Bullsquid. The possibility of humanity being extinct could be a real possibility, however the marine can't be a hundred percent sure. There is the possibility that _it_ decided to put it here just to mess with him. Or maybe humanity could still be around and the Bullsquid was just one that escaped the nuclear blast and was able to make its way to the Underground.

Unlikely he thought to himself. The odds of the alien making its way across the country and not getting killed are close to zero. Then it would have to fall into the Underground as well. Again, unlikely.

The pair decided to take the left path, leaving both the dead alien and monster helmet behind them. The walk was quiet, as the two fell into a comfortable silence as they both process the implication aliens being in the Underground. It doesn't last for long as Chara speaks up.

"Adrian?"

The marine turns to her the ghost who, he just notices, is still holding his hand, giving him a weird feeling that he tries to ignore.

"When the alien was on you, I noticed that your gun was close by."

Adrian's eyes widen behind his respirator. "That was you who threw it right? I almost forgot to thank you, it wasn't for you I be a pile of goo right now." A small chuckle escapes his lips, however the ghost just rolls her eyes and continues on nonetheless.

"Yeah, you're welcome. But that's not what I wanted to talk about. When I picked up the gun, I tried to fire it, but it wouldn't fire, but when you got it, it did fire. So do you know what that was about?"

The marine thinks for a second before coming up with an answer. "I would say that you had the safety on, a common mistake for a rookie," the girl glares at him as he continues. "But that obviously not it since I could fire it myself without having to touch the safety. It didn't jam either, so I'm not a hundred percent sure."

"Actually, I might have an answer, but I'm not sure if it is right, but it's a thought. During the first few Resets," the phantom hesitates for a second, "well… Genocides, I wasn't able to interact with anything around me. That included Frisk. However, as more and more… _Genocides_ went by, I was able to interact with my surroundings a little bit more, but I couldn't actually manipulate anything in a meaningful way. For example," she takes her hand away from Adrian's and snatches the tool wrench that was hanging off of his waist.

"I was never able to actually hold anything before you came along. Nor could I feel somebody when I touched them." A small blush appears on her face as the implications of what she just said come to mind, but she ignores it and goes on. "And the only real difference between you and Frisk, not implying you're anything like her, is the amount of LV you have. Frisk, never reached LV 26. You on the other hand, have. So I'm thinking that your LV is able to allow me to influence more of my surroundings."

While the idea didn't go over Adrian's head completely, he still understood most of it, even if it made no logical sense, but to Chara it did. She's surprised this line of thought never came to her before hand, it just made so much sense that that she looks back at the Resets, despite the emotional baggage that came with doing so. She's never been able to "Erase" the world until Frisk got to LV 20, and that was only when she beat Sans and the king. Maybe she could have been able to interact with Frisk and everything else before she would kill her and she, Frisk, could Reset.

"I'm guessing there's a catch to this however," the HECU marine says as he vaults over a large pile of trash.

"I was getting there but yes. I don't think I can actively help you, in any meaningful way at least." The ghost straps the wrench back onto the marine's waist. "Maybe we can test it?"

The marine shakes his head. "Maybe when we get somewhere safe, besides, I have a limited amount of ammo, can't risk wasting it."

Chara almost commented on the fact that he wasted a perfectly good bullet on the already dead creature but holds her tongue. It was most likely stress at the time, so she can't really blame him. She probably would have done the same had she found herself in a similar situation.

The ghost is suddenly stopped as her companion puts an arm in front of her, blocking her path forward. Actually, Adrian is probably the only thing that can stop her from moving now that she thinks about it. The ghost raises an eyebrow at the soldier, questioning him. He says nothing in return as he simply points to a thin rope in hanging from the ceiling. At least, she thinks it's a rope, hard to tell with how dark it is. Without uttering a sound, the marine grabs a piece of trash, an old cat food can, and chucks it at the rope. The sound of something similar to elastic being pulled echoes through the Dump as the "rope" suddenly retracts with the can stuck to it. Following the "rope" upwards as it retracts, she suddenly sees why Adrian stopped.

The "rope" is not a rope at all, but in fact some sort of tongue that leads into the mouth of some cancerous growth hanging from the ceiling. Four sharp teeth hang from four separate mandibles, which in turn, surround an inner mouth. The mandibles flex as the creature pulls its tongue upwards. As the piece of trash comes close enough, the inner mouth extends outward and swallows the can whole. However a second later the thing spits the thing back out, causing it to splash back into the sewage water.

The marine sighs. "That's a Barnacle." Ushering Sparky onto his arm, Adrian points the Shockroach at the alien. Two successive shots of plasma are shot forth and strike the creature, causing it to spasm as its tongue retracts halfway up, and its inner mouth hangs loosely in the air.

"I don't think that'll be the last of them," Adrian says grimly as the idea of humanity being extinct is becoming more and more plausible.

The two continue onwards, passing by more and more mounds of trash. As they pass by them, Adrian starts to notice that a lot of the human trash looks rather old. That itself isn't odd, but the brands are rather modern. Even the style of some of the trash is quite familiar to the marine. Lays chips, Hershey's chocolate, Kellogs cereal, Aperture Science shower curtains, and even the newest Iphones, all at such an advanced age. Stopping and picking up one of the many Iphones, the casing is all but destroyed, and large amounts of garbage stick to both the front and back. Looking over again after cleaning some of the grime off shows that it's a newer model. However it still looks rusted and aged.

Before Adrian can think of the possible implications of this discovery, an all to familiar noise interrupts the silence.

"That another alien?" The phantom asks, pointing further down the path. Looking over shows a pack of yellow-blue striped Houndeyes staring at the marine with their compound eyes. The first one stands on its back leg as it stands tall, trying to intimidate the soldier. The creatures start closing in on him as they make their signature call, a mixture of a squeak and a bark.

A bolt of plasma slams into the alpha, burning it's compound eye and causing it to squeal in agony as electricity courses through its body. A second shot slams into the alpha, causing it's blood to boil, leading to the creature exploding an a viresera of flesh and gibs. A second Houndeye dies right after as Adrian points Sparky at another one of the creatures.

Seeing two of their packmates die almost instantly causes panic to spread among them as they all suddenly turn and try to retreat. This proves futile as a ball of acid lands among them and explodes outwards like an organic grenade. Acid covers them as they fall to the ground and wither in pain. A bolt of plasma from Sparky puts one out of its misery, while another dies as Adrian walks up to one and slams the end of his wrench onto it, hard. The last one tries to limp away, but only gets so far before a knife enters it back, destroying its spine. The creature falls dead.

Chara stares on as Adrian slaughters the alien dogs, feeling his EXP rise with each kill. She ignores the feeling, as she's all to use to it by now thanks to Frisk. Chara feels no remorse for the creatures as Adrian dispatches the last one. She's not above the idea of killing after all. That would be hypocritical. As long as it isn't Genocide, she's find with it.

Adrian wipes away the green blood from his knife on his thigh, and holsters the weapon away again. He turns to the ghost afterwards.

"Sorry you had to see that."

The girl raises her eyebrow. "What, you think I'm scared of a little blood?"

"No, but still."

The ghost shrugs her shoulder again. "Don't worry about it, I ain't against the idea of killing a few alien pests. Besides," the ghost walks past the marine "you look good in green."

The marine just shakes his head as he follows his companion further down the garbage layed path. Not even bothering to walk over the corpse of the dead aliens.

The further the two continue down the path, the more the composition of the trash around them changes. Monster trash is starting to become more perverlant as they continue on, with human waste becoming more and more scarce. Another detail the pair notice is that the aliens are becoming more and more rare. They've seen a few Houndeyes scouring through the trash, trying to find food, but as soon as Adrian gets in line of sight they bolt out of the way before he can even dispatch them. The Barnacles too, are becoming rarer to find as well. They've only encountered one after the fight with the Houndeye pack. Adrian quickly dispatched it. As the creature died, it vomited out an excessive amount of dust and a piece of clothing. A torn sleeve, probably from a monster if Chara's guess is right.

The pair are stopped again as they hear the sound of trash falling off of one of the many mounds surrounding them. Before the two can comment on it, an alien jumps in front of them, giving a perfect view of what it is.

At first glance, it looks like a miniature Houndeye only with a few key differences. For starters, the alien is a hot red color instead of the yellow and blue striped coloration that is normal for one of its species. Another oddity is the fact that the creature is somewhat glowing, with it being most noticeable with the yellow strip surrounding its eye.

The miniature Houndeye rushes at the marine, ignoring the ghost for obvious reasons. Before the creature can get too close however, a bolt of plasma slams into it. The plasma makes contact, and instantly the creature explodes. Not into a shower of guts or anything similar, but just _explodes_ into a ball of fire.

"What the hell?"

A bunch of other creatures identical to the explosive Houndeye start making their way to the marine, pouring in from cavities in the walls of trash. The marine fires another bolt of plasma into the group, taking three down as the explosive force sets its companions off as well. Again Sparky fires a bolt of plasma and again, a bunch are killed. But more are coming in from the walls.

"That doesn't seem good." The ghost says to herself.

Seeing that taking them out one by one would be a fools errands, the marine has Spitball wiggle his way onto his arms and aims the creature at the center of the mob of explosive aliens. A ball of acid is shot forth from the baby shocktrooper, landing in the middle of the mob as it bounces a few times. A second later the ball explodes outwards, covering some in the surrounding area in a green acid. Those covered explode almost immediately explode, causing a chain reaction to go through the mob as the explosive force from the aliens detonating causes their neighbors to combust as well. Not long after the acid grenade exploded, all of the miniature Houndeyes were dead.

"So… What were those things?" The ghost asks.

"I don't know exactly. I can't remember seeing them from Black Mesa. I recall seeing the Houndeyes from earlier, as well as a big one during a trip to Xen, but never these guys." A gesture to where the creatures once were. "Be on the lookout for them will you? I would rather not be surprised by these little fuckers."

The trash that surrounds the path is now exclusively of monster origin, leading to the pair to conclude that they are getting closer to some type of exit. A few aliens were spotted, but Sparky is starting to tire out from all of the shooting, and he rather not waste one acid grenade on scattered Houndeyes. The same goes with ammunition. He could try to kill some of them with a knife but again, most of them flee at the slightest inconvenience, making that option null and void.

Walking by one of the barnacle tongues, and around a bend in the clearing, the pair finally make it to the end of the Dump. The walls of trash have become hills that slope down as they get closer and closer to the enclave that will lead to their freedom. Walking by a destroyed dummy, Adrian can only wonder what will happen to the aliens down here, the ones he didn't kill at least. He can't clear them out on his own. He wants to, he really wants to see every single one of them dead, but he can't, not with so little ammo and food for his alien companions. Besides, everytime he looks at one, he's reminded of the surface, of what could be going on above the mountain and away from monsterkind.

How much time has passed, Adrian wondered. The age of the human trash, and the aliens aren't painting an answer that he would like.

"Chara?"

The ghost turns to him, an eyebrow raised. "Yes Adrian?"

"What year is-"

Before he can finish, a hill of trash explodes outward much like with his encounter with the Bullsquid. Before he can react, a shockwave sends him flying backwards. With his ears still ringing, the marine gets himself up and looks up to see a Houndeye larger than him, and with bone like armor protecting parts of its body. The creature runs towards him, and Adrian rolls under the attack and by the downwards facing mouth, the marine appears on the other side of the creature. With Sparky too tired to fire, the soldier brings up his sidearm, turns on the red laser sight, and fires at the its back leg joint.

The magnum round tears through the unprotected flesh, tearing bone and rendering ligaments. With it's back leg no longer usable, the creature falls down, still alive but severely injured. Chara watches as the marine backs away from the creature, letting it suffer and die from the loss of blood that now stains the water around it. A second shockwave passes Chara, leaving her unharmed, and Adrian too far away to be affected.

"Should we kill it?"

The marine shakes his head. "No, more effort than it's worth, especially since it can still send out those sonic attacks."

The ghost nods, and follows the Corporal as they head to the exit, leaving the alien behind as it cries in agony.

* * *

The pair make it to the exit, a cave illuminated by the many glowing echos flowers and shining minerals on the cave walls and ceiling. A small pond meets them on the other side, with three paths behind it, and another to the right of it. The same ghost monster from before can be seen talking to another one of its kind further up the middle path. A quick glance to Chara shows that the correct path is the one to the far right of the pond.

Further down the path is the box from Snowdin with an archway next to it. Looking into the box reveals that all of the contents from before are in fact still there in the exact way Adrian left them. If he wasn't in an underground cave filled with sentient monsters and aliens from another dimension, while also being followed by a ghost girl, he would have question how something like the box is possible.

"I recommend that you get stocked up on food again. You have plenty of Gold to spare. Just go down this path and you'll find Gerson, a vendor."

The marine takes the ghost's advice. A large cave filled to the brim with sparkling rocks and minerals greet the pair as they pass the archway.

"Woah there buddy, what are you doing down here? Lookin for something"

Turning to the source of the voice, Adrian finds himself looking at a humanoid turtle monster in archaeologist attire. A large magnifying glass is held in one hand, while a long pointed beard falls from his chin. His open smile shows crooked yellow teeth. A single eye looks over Shephard, while the other remains closed. Worts can be seen below his tan pith hat.

"Hello sir, I was wondering if you had any food I could buy off you?" The marine asks in a polite tone, not wanting to offend or scare the monster away.

The monster, Gerson, nods his head as he strokes his bread. "While yes, I most certainly do! Just remember that it's gonna cost you!" His smile brightens as he grabs some crab apples from his bag and hands them to the lone marine.

"You know what, since you got rid of those creatures down in the dump, I'll give you a discount. 18G for the crab apples."

The marine looks at the monster for a second, suspicion in his eyes. "How did you know I took care of them?"

The monster laughs before responding. "Well, not many people come down her covered in that green blood of there's. Nor do they look so beat up. So as a thanks for clearing them out, I will give you a discount."

Adrian rubs his neck as he looks back at his armor. Dried blood, both human and alien, covers his PCV and uniform. Along with that, there's plenty of cuts and patches that are completely absent. He guess it's a little bit obvious. Turning back to Gerson, the marine asks another question.

"What do you know of the creatures back there?"

"What do you know of the creatures? You're the one who had to fight them" Gerson laughs again. "I don't know much about them. Not many people go down in the Dump, so it's kinda just a mystery, especially since it was declared off limits by the King. I saw one of the creatures down there before when a kid went down there, had to go find him. Anyways I never found the kid but I did get to see a few of the creatures living down there, got a few good hits on a big one too before it ran away. Big ugly thing that bleeds green and spits acid."

"You fought one of them?!"

"Aye I did. I might not be as good as I was in my youth, but I still got the fighting spirit from the war! I used to be a hero myself, back in those days. Gerson, the Hammer of Justice."

The marine nods and holds out his hand. "It's an honor then to meet such a veteran. I'm Corporal Shephard."

The monster takes the offending hand and shakes it. "Ah, a fellow soldier! I'm Gerson. Been a while since I've seen a true soldier. The Royal Guard are good at what they do, but they ain't like us, they don't know the horrors of real war, and I rather keep it that way Mr Shephard." A dangerous glint appears in his eyes and disappears just as quickly, startling the marine for a second.

"Anyways, what brings you down here? Don't find many humans running around, especially with Undyne on the prowl."

"I feel down a hole. Pretty bad fall." Adrian lied.

The monster nods. "I kinda figured. Say, you humans aren't planning to invade us or anything?" The marine shakes his head. "Ha, just making sure. Anyways, take these crab apples and hurry along. Undyne has been making rounds, so I would watch your back if I were you."

The marine hands the gold over and takes the crab apples. "Thank you. Again sir, it's been an honor meeting such an esteemed veteran."

"Ha, and it's been nice meeting another soldier for once. Now get going, you're holding up my studies!"

"Oh. I almost forgot. I didn't get all of them sadly, the creatures. There are still a few Houndeyes and Barnacles down there. I would recommend you get someone on that before they breed."

The monster laughs. "I didn't know they had names. They from the surface then?"

"You could say that."

"Okay, thanks for the head up."

* * *

The marine waves as he exits the doorway, with Chara waiting for him, a smile on her face. "I see you made a friend. How did that go?" The ghost asks, still smiling.

"Just some talk between soldiers. Nothing to worry about." He holds up the crab apples. "I got the goods." The ghost rolls her eyes as the two continue down the cave.

The two make it pass another one of the signs that have been spread out throughout Waterfall. While he's been ignoring them for the most part, Adrian has taken a sudden interest.

**Hurt, beaten, and fearful for our lives, we surrendered to the humans.**

**Seven of their greatest magicians sealed us underground with a magic spell.**

**Anything can enter the seal, but only beings with a powerful SOUL can leave.**

The two continue on past the sign as they find a hallway filled with similar signs posted on the cave walls. Most of the other signs are very much the same, with it describing how the monsters could destroy the barrier if something as powerful as seven human Souls attacked it, and the history of the Underground. Past a waterfall, the two find themselves in a darkened cave, with only some lanterns and crystals illuminating the way. While it would have been a problem for someone like Frisk, the darkness doesn't mean much to Adrian with his built in night vision. An electric buzz fills his ears as his world is filled with a green tinge.

The two make their way across the darkened cave system, running into a few monsters along the way, one of which is a small dog that called itself Temmie. Again, like most monsters, a few threats do wonders at getting people off your back, especially when you have a large rifle and cannon on your back. Not that he was going to use it, but still.

The pair eventually make it pass the darkened cave system, but soon after find themselves in another darkened hallway with a pond in that cuts through the path. Again, the night vision works wonders.

"Adrian, behind you."

As soon as those words left the ghosts lips, the sound of metal hitting stone echo across the tunnel. Turning around, the marine comes face to face with the knight, Undyne, that's been following him for a while. His hand hovers his handgun. Should things become real messy, his rifle is still strapped to his back.

Then there's the Displacement cannon should things become FUBAR.

"Seven…" The figure suddenly says.

"Seven human Souls… With the power of seven human Souls, our king… King Asgore Dreemurr will become a god." The marine pulls his handgun out and his wrench in his other hand.

"With that power…" the figure continues, ignoring the stance the marine in front of her takes. "Asgore can finally shatter the barrier. He will finally take back the surface from humanity and give them back the suffering and pain that we have endured."

The grip on his weapon tightens. "Sorry, but that ain't gonna happen."

"Don't you understand, human?!" Undyne screams. "This is your only chance at redemption." The figure points to the marine. "Give up your Soul, or I'll tear it from your body." The knight crouches down as a blue spear of energy materializes in her grip. The point aimed directly for the marine's chest. The figure takes one step forward…

"Undyne! I'll help you fight!" Monster kid declares as he burst from the bushes and stares at his idol. A look of confusion befalls his face as he looks back at the Corporal behind him. "Yo! You did it! Undyne is right in front of you. You even got front row seats!" The kid looks back between the two. "Wait."

The armored Undyne grabs the monster by the ear, and drags him back from the way Adrian and Chara came from as the kid asks his captive to not tell his parents. Once the pair are gone, the marine holsters his handgun and attaches his wrench to his waist.

"I guess some things never change."

Adrian spares a glance the ghost way, before shrugging his shoulder and continuing down the path.

The two make it down a tunnel filled with echo flowers. At the end of the path, another sign waits. Again, Adrian reads it again.

**However… There is a prophecy.**

**The Angel…**

**The One Who Has seen the surface.**

**They will return**

**and the Underground will go empty.**

A chill goes through Adrian's spine as he reads that last excerpt. Why, he doesn't know. Maybe he should ask Chara about it. She would know considering she's lived here and has been due to the Resets. Maybe he shouldn't. It could bring up bad memories. Deciding to leave it be, the marine catches up to Chara, who's waiting for him on a bridge.

"If you play your cards right, Undyne will leave you be, for a second at least."

The marine rolls his eyes, an action that goes unnoticed by the ghost due to his respirator blocking her view. "How helpful." A blown rasberry is all he gets in return. The two go down the wooden path.

Adrian was just about to cross the bridge when a familiar voice comes from behind him, causing him to stop right behind Chara as she crosses to the otherside. Looking back reveals what the marine suspected. Monster kid stands behind him. Before he can tell the kid to go home like he has done multiple times before, the monster speaks up.

"Yo. I know I'm not supposed to be here b… but…" The kid pauses. "I wanna ask you something…" Another pause. "...Man, I never had to ask this to anyone but...hm..." One last pause. "You're a human right?" A nervous laugh. The marine just nods his head.

The kid just laughs again. "I knew it, well I know it now at least, I mean. You know Undyne told me to 'stay away from that human.' So I guess that makes us enemies right?"

The Corporal raises his hand to stop the kid from continuing. "Kid, were not enemies. We have no reasons to be so. You should still go home however, I bet your parents _and_ Undyne are worried sick about you. So please, listen to me and just go home and forget you ever saw me."

"O, oh okay. I'm… I'm gonna go home. Sorry, I've been a huge turd."

"Don't say that kid, your young, you made a mistake, no problem, just don't repeat it."

The kid nods as he takes a step back. Without saying a word, he takes off, covering a large distance in a short amount of time. Halfway across the bridge however, the monster trips on a loose plank. The marine is already on the move before the kid even tumbles over the bridge. As he's making his way to the monster hanging on to the ledge with just his teeth, he sees Undyne crossing the bridge on the other side. He ignores the monster as he picks up the kid by his head and pulls him behind him.

The marine points behind him. "Go."

"But…"

"It's fine, just GO!"

The kid runs off over the bridge, past Undyne and out of view from the two combatants and the ghost. The knight watches as the kid runs around a corner out of view, before turning back to the human in front of her.

"You think that absolves you of your crimes. For all of those you killed."

The marine doesn't answer.

"Six, that's how many Souls have. That's how much we have collected thus far. Understand? With your seventh Soul, the monsters that you killed in the Dump can be avenged, and we will finally become free."

"I never-"

"You know what! Screw it!" Undyne interrupts.

The figure suddenly raises her hand, and yanks her helmet and throws it away from her. Fish-like features greats the marine. The red flowing mane he saw earlier wasn't part of the helmet, but rather her hair. A yellow eye stares back at the marine with killing intent, while the left one is covered by a eye patch. Sharp teeth, like that of a piranha, shine from the light coming from the rocks above them.

"Your standing in everyone's hopes and dreams! I used to think your kind were cool, with their flowery women and giant swords, but you only prove what I should have known all along. Your kind are nothing but murderers! The world would be a better place if you were dead!"

The marine backs up, trying to get himself off the bridge to prepare for the inevitable fight.

"That's right! Your continued existence is a crime! You are what stands between us and _freedom_."

The marine makes his way off the bridge and onto solid ground. Chara watches as always.

"Right now, I can feel everyone's hearts pounding together! Everyone has been waiting their entire lives for this moment, but we are not nervous, because when we put our hearts together, we can't lose! Now, human. Let me show you how determined monsters can really be!"

A spear materializes in her hands.

"En guard!"

The monster charged forward, spear pointed at the marine with the intent to kill. The soldier didn't get the time to think, so he acted instead. As quickly as he could, he sidestepped the monster much like how he did with the Bullsquid not long ago. Undyne goes flying by him before she turns around facing him and blocking his path to Hotland. A determined look in her eye.

**Undyne attacks**

**[Undertale OST, Spear Of Justice]**

Before Adrian can bring up his wrench a spear is thrown his way. Before it can make contact, the marine swings his wrench at the incoming projectile. The spear is knocked off course as it slams into the ground next to Adrian and disappears. Another comes his way, causing the marine to turn his body, allowing the projectile to graze by him. A shot from Sparky goes flying back to the Royal Guard and ends up hitting the bridge. The alien tries to fire another shot, but it only ends up causing sparks to dance across his clawed mandibles.

Adrian allows the alien to slither back into his backpack. Spitball quickly takes the Shochroach's place in Adrian's arm.

The monster was not going to sit idly by however. Undyne quickly closes the distance between the two right as Spitball fires off his acidic grenade. The shot hits it's mark, causing Undyne to flinch as the acid eats away at her armor and scales, nonetheless she continues forward, spear in hand. The marine dodges the spear as the monster lunges at him. With an opening, the marine brings out his handgun and aims it at the back of Undyne head. With no time to dodge, Undyne can only stare wait for the bullet to go through her skull as Adrian pulls the trigger.

" _I only ask that you avoid killing the other Monsters."_ The voice of the Caretaker echoes in his head, causing him to pause for just a moment.

Taking the opportunity given to her, Undyne swings her spear backwards like a baseball bat, slamming it into Adrian and causing him to be flung back onto the ground. Pain courses through his abdomen and back as he lands on slides backwards a good few feet. The Displacement cannon not making it anymore comfortable. The Corporal gets up as a Spear slams into the place he was in just a moment ago. Undyne quickly goes on the offensive again as the marine is forced to dodge swing after thrust from the spear in her hands. The spear grazes his armor, and causes blood to leak out of a wound. Bringing out his wrench, the soldier swings the tool overhead and brings it down hard against the monster. A dent is formed just above her shoulder, causing Undyne to wince in pain, and before she can do anything about it, another swing of the wrench slams across her face, causing dust to fly everywhere. The monster quickly counter attacks by kicking the marine away from her before he can bring down his weapon again.

Adrian grunts as he slides back across the stone floor. He's trying his damn best to not kill Undyne but it's proving to become more difficult then he initially thought. Ammo is too low for him to go gung ho and Chara isn't able to help, Sparky is too tired to keep on fighting, and he's getting weared down by her constant attacks. He can't eat to heal himself less he leaves himself open for her to finish him off, and it's becoming increasingly clear that he's not going to win a battle of attrition.

His train of thought is interrupted as the knight throws herself towards him again.

"For years we've dreamed of a happy ending."

Her spear misses Adrian's head by an inch, allowing him to take a swing at the monster again, however before he can, an armored knee slams into his midsection.

"And now, sunlight is within our reach."

The marine gets up as the monster thrust her spear at him, causing him to back up just far enough out of it's deadly reach. His wrench is brought down on the weapon, and with a pull, he gets the magical spear out of Undyne's grasp. Before he can make use of the opening that he created, a hole of blue magical energy appears below him, causing him to jump out of the way as a spear juts out of the portal.

"Alphys told me that humans could be determined, I see now what she means by that."

A spear forms in her hands.

"But I can be determined too!"

Two spears appear above the monsters head. Adrian doesn't need to be a genius to understand what's about to happen next. One of the spears is thrown his way, causing him to dodge. Another spear from above Undyne comes his way, and again he dodges.

Undyne growls and swings her spear impatiently as she summons more spears, and all at once, send them flying to the human in front of her.

"Determined to end this right now!"

The marine tries his hardest to dodge every projectile. The first one was simply hit off course by his wrench, followed closely by the second and third. He was forced to dodge the forth, less he be skewered. The fifth and ends up hitting his side, causing blood to spill on the ground once again. The sixth and final one misses him as he ducks.

Standing back up, Shephard can see that the monster is enraged.

"I don't want to fight you god dammit. Fuck." The marine winces as more blood flows out from his wound. The marines ends up spinning out of the way of a spear, this one going faster than usual. Before he can react, Undyne has already closed the distance between the two, and is about to skewer Adrian alive. Again, the marine ends up dodging the attack, but his movement has slowed down.

He's really trying to not kill Undyne, he really is. He can't run now, not with her so enraged and not with him so hurt. He'll live, the wound isn't a fatal one, but it's still noticeably slowing him down. He's out of options. If he doesn't do something quickly, he'll most definitely die from her constant attacks. While she's tiring out as well, he doesn't know who will tire out first, and he can't bank on it being her. Not like this.

" _I only ask that you avoid killing the other Monsters."_

"NGAHH! JUST DIE ALREADY!"

Spears form all around Adrian, causing him to pause his train of thought as they close in from every angle. He's able to jump over most of them, but the rest he has to either smack off course or roll under. As he gets past the last spear, he sees Undyne charging at him with her spear pointed straight at his heart. Again, Adrian tries the proven tactic of dodging.

The spear misses his chest, and instead slams into his wrench, causing it to fly away out of his grip.

"Haha, not so tough now are yo-"

A glint of metal can be seen heading towards Undyne abdomen, causing her to widen her eyes.

_**{9999999}** _

Adrian pushes his combat knife further into the monster's abdomen, causing dust to spill out of the wound. The spear in Undyne's hand disappears she tries to push the human back, only to find that all of her strength has simply vanished. The monster grunts in pain as the marine twists the knife, and pulls it out of her abdomen. The head of the Royal Guard falls to one knee as she finds herself at the mercy of the human she promised she would kill.

"Huh, just like that? One simple swing of a knife and I'm finished?" The monster looks away from the human, not as her form starts to disappear.

"I told you I didn't want to fight, and for what's it's worth, I'm sorry" The marine grunts again as he holds his side.

"She's a goner now." Chara speaks up.

"Alphys, Papyrus, Asgore. I'm sorry, I failed you." A look of defeat befalls her face.

Dust starts to fly off her body in larger quantities as her form becomes less and less recognizable.

"Let's get going Adrian." The ghost turns around and heads in the direction of Hotlands.

The marine doesn't answer, nor does he follow she notices.

"Adrian, you coming?"

Hearing no answer the ghost turns around. "Adrian, I don-" She stops as she looks back.

In front of the speechless Adrian, the dust that was once Undyne is reforming. Piece by piece, her body regains its shape and melts only to form back together again. Slowly, her head becomes whole again as the rest of her body meshes together.

**[Undertale OST, But The Earth Refused To Die]**

"No. My body... It feels like it's splitting apart. Like any minute… I'll scatter into a million pieces." Her torso becomes recognizable again, but everything below that is still melting and reforming again and again.

"But, deep in my soul, I can feel it. A burning sensation that WON'T let me die."

Adrian doesn't move.

"Twenty years since the last human fell down here. We were losing hope that another would ever come again. Now, our chance at freedom is right here, right in front of me. Right now, everyone in the Underground is counting on me to make their dream a reality, because if I don't, then not even the king will stop you."

Adrian backs up Undyne's figure starts to glow, and her eye brightens with a determination. A smile now adorns her face.

"I can feel them, their hearts beating as one, and we all have only one goal. To defeat YOU and gain our FREEDOM!"

Her figure glows even brighter and air becomes more chaotic, with wind pushing Adrian back even further.

"Now, _Human_. For the sake of all of monsterkind. I, UNDYNE,STRIKE YOU DOWN!

"Oh shit" The ghost swears.

The light reaches its apex, blinding both Shephard and Chara as the marine is thrown back by the wind until he hits a mountain that, in another time, was the fighting ground between the head of the Royal Guard and a fallen child. Chara is quickly by his side, and helps to hoists the marine up onto his feet.

The lone Corporal looks back to Undyne, now fully reformed. Her shoulder pads, now resembling spikes, have lengthened upwards, hard solid gloves adorne her hands, and a symbol much like a heart can be seen on her chest, while the rest of her armor has been upgraded with thicker metal plates.

A thick booming voice comes from Undyne.

"You're gonna have to try a little harder than _THAT_!"

**{The heroine appears}**

**[Undertale - Battle Against A True Hero {Intense Symphonic Metal Cover]**

Wave upon waves of spears materialize behind the now reformed monster as her right eye explodes outwards like a beam. The wind blows all around them chaotically as Undyne motions her gloved hand forward, willing her collection of spears to rush past her, almost blurring as they speed forward with much more force then they have previously. The HECU marine is forced to back up as the wall of projectiles crash into the ground where he once was, breaking the stone floor beneath him. Another is thrown his way as he brings out his rifle. Unlike the others however, this one is yellow.

The marine throws himself into a roll as the spear passes by him. The small victory is almost completely forgotten as the yellow spear turns around mid flight and back in his direction. The projectile cuts through a large portion of his PCV armor as it flies by, blood spurts out of the large gashing wound.

Seeing an opening, Undyne charges forward, summoning more magical spears and hurling them Adrian's way. Shephard, dodges most of them but another cuts through and lodges itself in his PCV. The monster jumps upwards as the spear in Adrian dematerializes, allowing blood to flow through yet another open wound on Shephard. The marine fires off a short controlled burst from his rifle, only to miss as Undyne comes crashing down on him. The marine falls, now sporting a much more nastier cut across his torso as the monster prepares to bring her weapon down again.

Adrian, with adrenaline and determination coursing through his system, takes out his combat knife, ignoring the pain, and swipes at a unprotected portion of Undyne, causing dust to go flying and the monster to stagger back. The knife is inserted into the wound as more and more dust flows outwards, however the marine is only able to get one more good stab before Undyne's right eye explodes outwards again, causing the wind to go fly away from her and pushing Adrian back and disorienting him. Spears appear around him again, causing him to move between them before they all converge on him. He's able to do so, but another circle of spears appear, causing him to duck as they all pass by where his head once was. The process repeats itself again and again, getting faster and faster before the last spears disappear.

Adrian takes a deep breath as he stares down at Undyne, who returns a glare at the marine. Both are injured, but Shephard is the one who's got it bad. Sweat, blood, and dust cover his ruined uniform. Old wounds have been reopened, his helmet has sports a large crack, and legs are shaking from non stop movement. Sparky is curled up in his bag, while Spitball is latched onto his arm. His M4 is slung around his chest, and the Displacement cannon is still behind him.

Undyne on the other hand, only sports the wound inflicted by him earlier in the fight. Unknown to Shephard however, is that one attack almost killed her. Unlike humans, who tire from their wounds, monsters are essentially at full strength until they are on the verge of death. So right now, her only viable strategy is to keep him at a distance and make sure he isn't able to fire off a shot from his rifle less she meets an unfortunate end. The undying monster summons forth more spears, and fires them at the weakened Shephard over and over again.

Adrian sees the spears coming for him, but unlike last time, he stands his ground and points Spitball right at the middle of the projectiles. A ball of acid burst out from the alien's mouth and ends up colliding with the lead spear. The ball explodes, unleashing acid at the surrounding spears. Most of the spears end up disappearing as acid is sprayed on them, while the rest are blown off course by the concussive force of the acid grenade.

Undyne pauses as she sees all of her spears either disappear of blown off course from the exploding ball of _acid_ shot from the creature on the human's forearm. She never really took into account that creature. She saw the other one shot something at her, but never this one.

With her momentarily distracted, Adrian is able to do the one thing Undyne has been trying to stop him from doing in the first place. Sluggishly, Adrian brings out his M4 and aims it at the monster's head. Her eyes widen as Undyne realizes her mistake and tries to jump out of the way as Adrian pulls the trigger, sending three secretive shots at her. The first one hits her armor and punches straight through it, staggering her. The second one punches through the heart on her chest plate, while the third misses due to Adrian not being able to aim properly due to blood loss.

The monster kneels down as she stares at the gaping wound in her chest, and back to the marine who still has his rifle trained at her. Her eye pulsates outwards again, and before Adrian can fire, a spear forms behind him and rushes towards him. He turns and dodges the projectile. Looking back towards Undyne, he sees that she's already gotten up, and has closed the distance between the two. An armored leg kicks the marine backwards, causing both Spitball and his rifle to go flying from him.

"Spitball!"

Another flash of light and a gust of wind ends up throwing him to the side of a mountain, hard. The marine flops down onto the floor, unable to gather his strength. He stares forwards as the monster walks on forward, spear in hand ready to end this fight once and for all.

Undyne makes her way over to the downed human, ready to retrieve his Soul and finally end this fight. While she might not survive, already she can feel herself slipping, she can at the very least allow monsterkind a future and avenge those that the bastard killed in the Dump.

A wrench slams into her head, disorientating her for a second. Looking behind her to see who threw, she finds nothing but empty space. Confusion passes through her before she decides that it's not important as of this second, at least not as important as the human. Turning back to the human, she finds herself facing the open maws of a savage beast.

While the monster was distracted by the wrench thrown at her by Chara, the marine gathered what little strength he had and brought out his final weapon.

The Displacement cannon.

Now he could have just brought out his magnum, or used spitball, but he's too tired to risk missing or her surviving at all. He's been close to death before like this at Black Mesa, and like then, the Displacement cannon saved him, so, he's willing to go a little overkill.

The marine holds down the trigger as extra-dimensional energies gather at the 'mouth' of the weapon. Once it reaches its apex, Adrian lets go of the trigger and watches the green portal fly towards the monster.

Undyne sees the portal closing in on her, and jumps out of its path. A brief moment of relief passes through her as she finds herself facing the human again.

However, the monster was completely out of the portals path of destruction.

A beam of electricity flies out of the portal as it passes through the air, striking stone and bio-luminescent plants alike. As the portal flew by Undyne, one of the unstable beams strikes her figure, causing the monster to scream in pain as her body is disintegrating from the excess amount of energy flowing through her, turning her body to ash before it become dust. The flying portal hits the mountain next to her, and explodes outwards in a green shockwave.

"NOOOOOOOO!"

The monster screams one last time as the shockwave hits her, causing her body to disperse into a cloud of ash before the ash becomes nothing but dust of a fallen monster.

The marine stares at the dust that occupies the space where Undyne once was. No sound escapes him as he simply looks on at the particles floating about in the unnatural wind of the Underground. Chara comes up next to him with his M4 and wrench in hand and Spitball slithering beside her. The ghost sits down next to Adrian as the marine takes off his helmet and respirator before grabbing a Crab Apple from his backpack.

"A thank you would be nice."

The marine simply stares at the ghost as he takes a bite from the monster food. His injuries are already healing over from the magical properties of said food.

"Thanks." The marine says as he takes his weapons and puts them on the floor next to the Displacement cannon.

"Your welcome. So," the ghost continues, "how was it defeating Undyne the Undying?"

The marine snorts. "Really, a pun?"

A punch to the shoulder is the only answer the marine gets, causing him to laugh again before the two fall into a comfortable silence as they contemplate what the hell just happened, unaware of the skeletal figure watching the marine from afar.


	11. Hotland

"Speech"

_'Thoughts'_

_"Past speech and Gman"_

_**"Other"** _

**"Text/misc"**

* * *

Flowey was not having a good week.

When he saw that he was back in the Ruins, he knew it was Frisk doing once again. It had to be. At first there was nothing but relief as he was pretty sure that demon was gonna murder him as soon as he killed Asgore for her. That smile that adorned her face when they met before she entered New Home didn't go well with the almost empty void that were her eyes. The image of her staring him down with that creepy face gives him chills thinking back to it.

She really did look like his sister at that moment.

However that relief soon turned to confusion when he actually took a second to think of what just happened. The teen shouldn't have been able to Reset, not yet, not until she reached the barrier. She most certainly didn't get to the barrier from what he remembered, he was by the king after all, so what happened he wondered to himself.

He quickly decided to store that question for later, as the human was probably coming up to the room they first met by now. So he burrowed himself deep underground as he made his way to the destined meet up point for the two. Everything was normal when he got there, nothing out of the ordinary like usual. He felt Frisk's Soul quickly making it way to him, so he put on his best poker face and awaited her arrival.

However, something was off he noticed. Her Soul, it felt… different, more powerful, even more so than when she was LV 19. It had to be a trick of the mind he thought to himself, or maybe it wasn't. With the power to Reset no longer in his hands, it's likely that this has happened before. Maybe she slaughtered everyone before. And maybe she has Reset before reaching the barrier in a previous run. It's hard to tell when she can do a full Reset, erasing his memories like he did when he had that same power. Now wasn't the time to dwell on such thoughts however. He could hear the sound of footsteps behind him, he had a meeting to attend.

He truly didn't expect to come face to face with a gas mask.

Now alarm bells were going off in his head as he took in the appearance of the human in front of him. Combat boots, a thin piece of armor, a large rifle, and uniformed clothing covered in blood, sewage, and plenty of other things he couldn't put a name to. The most striking detail however was the aforementioned gasmask. Green lenses stared at him with an ominous glow to them, allowing him to see the shocked expression of the human behind them.

The soulless flower was flexible when it came to the unknown however, or at least he likes to think he is, so he quickly hid any expression of confusion behind the go to happy mask that he's used on so many others. He did his usual spiel about the human being new to the Underground and what not while the human, who he just realized must have been some type of soldier, stood there motionless.

"Let's go!"

Flowey's facade quickly fell when he took a peek at the human's Soul.

It was a deep crimson red that was soaked with the blood of hundreds, maybe even a thousand. Not only that, but it equaled Frisk in term of sheer Determination that went through it. Another oddity was the purple "connections" that ran into the human's backpack.

He couldn't take his eyes off it, nor could he come to terms with the fact that this human was LV 26. It was insane. The amount of EXP needed only be possible with someone who's slaughtered literal waves of people.

Yet the evidence stood in front of him.

So he attacked it, hoping to gain it for himself before something blasted him in the face, burning away his pedals as he retreated to safety and out of harm's way.

His interest in the new arrival didn't falter though. He made sure to watch this new human with interest as it made its way through the Ruins and to Mo… Toriel's house. A few things he found out was that one; the human was the only one to come through. Meaning that Frisk has either not yet fallen, or wasn't going to. He also didn't have to worry about a human invasion if this human was truly alone. Two; the human was armed. The human had three weapons from what he could tell. Two firearms, and a bloodied pipe wrench. Third; the human also had two companions with him. They were definitely not monsters, but they didn't seem like anything from the surface either, too bizarre, too foreign from what Flowey remembers.

However the last little detail he noticed was something that truly surprised him.

He decided to check up on Toriel to find out why she wasn't escorting the human, only to find her house much older than he remembered. He ignored this fact for a second to focus on getting answers. He found Toriel reading some random book that he didn't care about, but after scurrying around for a while, the Soulless flower found out something truly insane.

The year was 2041.

He couldn't believe it. He quickly left the house and proceeded further into the Underground to see if the calendar was simply a fluke. He was relieved when he found that everything was exactly how he remembered it, but that relief quickly turned to confusion again when he found out that every other calendar was exactly the same as the last.

**2041**

**2041**

**2041**

Calendar after calendar, and the results were still the same. He felt his confusion grow as he realized that only the year and the human were the only changes that he saw. He wasn't the only one freaking out however. He saw Sans quickly leave his house and make a mad dash for the exit to the Ruins. It was both odd and satisfying seeing the skeleton so bewildered, but he decided to leave the monster alone and let him deal with his own problems.

He went back to the Ruins only to find that the human was sleeping in Toriel's house much like Frisk has done so in the last timeline, which left him with plenty of time to investigate the sudden changes in the Underground. Again, the only difference he found however was the year, everything else seemed almost exactly the same. Even the monsters themselves are still the same age they were beforehand. It was strange.

He was just going to give up looking for any clues on why things were different when he overheard an interesting conversation.

"You got to control your kids man. If the Royal Guard find out that they were in the Dump, there will be hell to pay. You know no one is allowed in that place, especially not with those strange occurrences going on in that place."

'In can't be a coincidence that the Dump is now off limit at the same time as the new human entering the Underground.' He thought to himself.

So he left Snowdin to continue his search for answers, and it was not disappointing. While he did have to get his hands dirty to get some monsters to talk, it wasn't too hard to figure out what was going in the Dump. The place was declared off limits for years. From what he knows, human garbage stopped falling almost two decades ago and, for some reason, the King declared the place off limits to all except a very select few. So naturally, he decided he was going to disobey this new law to find out what really made the Dump so special since a lack of human garbage isn't something to freak out about.

Again, with his vast network of tunnels going throughout the entire Underground, the Soulless flower made his way deep into the center of the Dump to find answers to the sudden changes happening all around him.

* * *

Sans watched as the human entered Waterfall, while also keeping an eye on his brother who was making his way back to Snowdin. He made sure to leave a note at home saying he was going to be home late so he shouldn't be too worried. Anyways, the human, Shephard, was keeping to his promise of leaving every monster unharmed. So he had to at least give that to the guy. However he doesn't believe this trend will continue much longer if his hunch is right. The evidence was stacking up the more he followed him.

The soldier did fall into the Dump after an encounter with Undyne which gave him a chuckle. What are the chances that he would fall for the same trick that Frisk was forced to go through so many times. However his mood was immediately soured when he went down there to follow him into the Dump.

He came upon it not far from the flowerbed that the soldier landed on. The thing was an ugly thing, even with all of its brain matter on the floor. It was also dead, which made him think that the human went back on his promise but after taking a much closer look at it, he realized that might not be the case. The creature wasn't like anything he had ever seen before, nor did it resemble anything from the surface. It was just so alien, much like those creatures he saw the human carrying in his backpack. That couldn't be a coincidence. While the creatures the human carried didn't resemble the dead… thing in front of him, they still shared the same exotic vibe that came from the corpse.

Leaving the creature's body alone, he kept on going down the path the human took, idling taking note of the excessive amount of trash around him and how most of it seemed to be of human origin and extremely old. That didn't worry Sans however, he's pretty sure that just from the sudden change of date that spurred his earlier panic attack.

His trek through the old Dump was an odd eye opener for Sans however as he saw plenty of other creatures, each one more bizarre than the last. The first one he saw was some odd cancerous growth that hung from the ceiling that seemed to use its tongue as a way to catch anything that got stuck to it. He left those alone since they didn't pose a danger to any monsters due to the place being off limits and the fact that the thing couldn't move. Further into his journey he found another strange creature, or rather creatures. These ones were already dead, most likely killed by Shephard. The three legged creatures all looked the same, leading him to believe that they must all be part of the same species. He found others later on, these one alive unlike the last bunch. They proved to be very territorial, he found, with some even going as far as to approach him. The animals were quite easily scared off however when he picked one up via his powers and threw it around. He kept the one he had in his invisible grip however, curious on what it's Soul looked like.

He was surprised when he took a peak. It wasn't like an animal Soul, and he has seen plenty of them from all of the rats and rodents he found over the years, nor did it have the characteristics of a monster Soul. In fact, the things Soul wasn't like any other, human, monster, or otherwise.

Instead of the typical heart, in its place was an orb of green, almost chaotic, energy. It wasn't the green that he was used to though as it became an increasingly lighter shade as you reached its core.

He spent so much time just observing it that he almost got hit by some type of sonic shockwave by the creature he was holding. He was so surprised by this, that he threw the thing as far away as possible before continuing forward.

His trek became much more dull after that, with most of the creatures seemingly avoiding him. He wanted to stay and find out more about these creatures that decided to take residence in the Dump, but he couldn't leave the human alone for long. So he "shortcut" his way to the exit…

And right next to a dying creature.

"Shit!"

The skeleton quickly teleported away just as the thing produced an ear piercing screech that produced a powerful shockwave that blew gallons worth of sewage water outwards in large waves. The shockwave didn't reach him luckily, nor did he get any sewage on him.

The creature looked very much like the three legged ones that he kept on seeing earlier, however it was much larger, with yellow rock-like armor covering portions of its body. The thing was also injured, with a large piece of its back leg missing. The creature made another sound, however this one much more pitiful, most likely a cry of pain the skeleton realized.

Another shockwave was sent out, this one much weaker than the last. He knew the creature was dying and that it was unlikely he could do anything, and even if he did, it would most likely still attack anyone it came across if it was as territorial as its smaller brethren. So he raised his hand and summoned a bone and had it impale the creature right in its insect-like eye. The thing spasamed for a split second before it stopped moving and fell still.

With the thing now dead, the skeleton took another "shortcut" away from the Dump and back into Waterfall. He continued his pursuit of Shephard, who's been given a very long head start thanks to the mysterious creatures.

Sans thoughts were interrupted however as he heard the sound of Undyne's spears and other sounds of battle up ahead. He quickly teleported to the source of fighting. Hoping that he could stop Undyne and the human before anything drastic happens.

The skeleton was too late to do anything however, because as soon as he arrived he saw the human charging up the cannon he found in the box outside of Snowdin while Undyne, who he realized has charged to the form that she normally used during a genocide run, was distracted. The cannon shot forth a orb of green chaotic energy, which looked suspiciously similar to the Souls of the creatures in the Dump. The main orb missed Undyne, but the chaotic nature of the projectile allowed a beam of power to hit the Royal Guard dead on, frying her to a crisp before the orb impacted a wall and exploded outwards, creating a shockwave that finally ended her existence.

Remorse went through him as he looked upon the dust floating in the air that was once his friend. He could have been there had he not been side tracked by those creatures. He shoved those feelings down as he stared on at the wounded soldier with empty eyes, debating on whether he should end his existence at that very second.

His inner debate was put on hold however as he saw the soldier's weapons appear above him and into his arms. The soldier then proceeded to put the weapons down as he started to chat with someone who wasn't there. While he couldn't make out the words, he did find that his eyes have loss there glow as he stared at Shephard eating a Crab Apple.

'So... I was right.'

The skeleton quickly teleported away as Shephard and his "companion" left for Hotland, thinking about his next course of action.

* * *

Adrian realized that he never got to appreciate the sheer usefulness of monster food until now.

After his fight with "Undyne the Undying," as Chara called her, he was on the edge of falling into a permanent state of rest, or death if he were to use its formal definition. With so many open wounds and blood loss he might have actually died from the shock alone were it not for the adrenaline pumping through his system. But those injuries were quickly washed away as he took a bite out of the crab apple. He ate monster food before, but never had he really gotten to see the effects of its magic. Wounds that would have taken minutes for even the Xen healing pools to heal closed off in mere seconds. The magical food must have given him blood as well because he saw color again. Not only that, but he felt refreshed. No, he's never felt more energetic.

"This stuff is amazing." Adrian said, taking the last bite out of the magical item.

"You already said that." Chara remarked as she walked alongside the marine. "Hey look, we're already near Hotland."

Adrian could tell. The heat was rising dramatically with each step. It was bearable, but he was quickly covered in sweat as he walked past the giant neon sign that greeted them. Even the desert of New Mexico wasn't this bad, although it was the coldest time of the year there, but he did have to walk through exhaust ports in Black Mesa that lead to incinerators and still the heat was becoming unbearable.

_'Please don't tell me all of Hotland is going to be like this..'_ The marine thought to himself.

He saw the exit to Waterfall and quickly made his way over with Chara close behind him. He made it through and felt as if he stepped into the gates of Hell itself. A vast chasm filled with magma greeted him, with different structures propped up on natural islands of rock that were connected by a vast network of bridges and elevators that allowed residents to cross through without worry.

"Oh sonuvabitch."

The ghost next to him giggled.

The pair walked across a bridge, past a water fountain, and came up onto a large square building with the sign "Lab" hanging above the door. There were two other paths, however one was blocked by a wall of electricity, while the other led to another cave.

"Welcome to the lab, where the royal scientist Alphys resides." The young woman next to him said, raising her arms as if the building was some type of awe inspiring sight to behold.

The marine simply gave the ghost a little shove in response, which made said ghost return the gesture with a playful glare. The Corporal didn't budge however as the ghost bumped into him, instead Chara bounced off him, like a tennis ball hitting a racket due all of the armor and general weight on him. That and he was a good head taller than her.

Walking into the building, the soldier and the phantom made their way to a very large computer screen that showed a live recording of Adrian himself from a camera behind him that tracked his movements.

"Alphys has been watching you for a while now, ever since you found that first camera near the exit to the Ruins. In fact, if everything goes how it normally does, the royal scientist should be just up ahead, and she won't be pleased since you killed her lover."

Adrian cringes as he hears this, but nonetheless he continues forward, past a disorganized computer table with a bunch of papers and anime figures that all surrounded a large computer screen that wouldn't be out of place in Black Mesa. Actually, the entire place is giving him flashbacks to Black Mesa, although it mostly because of the science equipment and what not.

He unplugs the computer and tries to find the outlet on his PCV before plugging it in, earning a raised eyebrow from Chara. The power that once went to the computer begins to flow through his Powered Combat Vest, reactivating it's internal functions as the armor starts to repair not only itself, but the rest of his uniform as well. Holes and punctures sealed themselves back together, and the crack on his helmet was repaired within a minute. Before long, all signs of his previous engagements have disappeared, with only dried alien, and human, blood, sewage, and dust to show that said engagements happened in the first place.

"That's pretty neat" the ghost commented

Once the vest fully repaired itself and was fully charged, the pair eventually made it to the other side of the building, however there is no sign of any monster scientist.

"Huh, I thought we would at least run into her by now. That's what normally happens anyways" Chara said to herself.

All of the lights in the building suddenly go out, and the room is bathed in darkness.

"Shit… Almost forgot about him" The ghost murmurs.

The marine quickly turns on his night vision and unholsters his rifle as he scans the room for any sign of danger. This proves to be unnecessary however as the building shakes from something metal hitting a nearby wall.

"Adrian, meet the human killing, monster 'celebrity,' Mettaton." The ghost tells the marine, putting air quotes around the word celebrity.

"WELCOME, BEAUTIES..."

The wall that Adrian was looking at burst open as a square robot with a screen as a body, two human-like arms, one of which is carrying an actual microphone, and one single wheel that keeps it upright comes on through.

"TO TODAY'S QUIZ SHOW! MAKE SURE TO GIVE OUR CONTESTANT A ROUND OF APPLAUSES" The lights turn back on as the sound of cheering comes from the robot's own microphone as it claps alongs.

Adrian eye twitches.

"HAVE YOU'VE NEVER PLAYED BEFORE, HANDSOME?"

Chara levels a glare at the machine while Adrian fights the urge to shoot the thing and be done with it.

"NO PROBLEM! IT'S VERY SIMPLE! THERE'S ONLY ONE RULE. ANSWER CORRECTLY…"

"Or die," the ghost finishes, sighing as she did so.

"OR DIE!"

Adrian doesn't even look surprised. In fact, he fell into a kind of limbo as he answered the questions the robot threw his way. Some of them were quite easy to figure out just by process of elimination.

**"What's the prize for answering correctly?"**

"Let me guess, more questions?"

However there were some that required him to actually think back on the knowledge he learned from his trek through the Underground.

**"What's the king's full name?"**

"Uh, Asgore Dreemurr?"

Then there were the stupid ones that gave him no hope of being able to anwser with the limited amount of time that he is given.

**"Two trains, Train A and Train B, simultaneously depart Station A and Station B. Station A and Station B are 252.5 miles apart from each other. Train A is moving at 124.7mph towards Station B, and Train B is moving at 253.5 towards Station A. If both trains are…"**

"The answer is D." The ghost sighed as she crossed her arms and leaned next to a refrigerator.

"GOOD JOB HUMAN, BUT CAN YOU GUESS THIS ONE?"

The robot's screen blinks a series of different colors as Adrian waits for the next question before it suddenly stops and displays the next question along with all of the answers.

**"Would you smooch a ghost?"**

All of the answers said yes.

"For fuck sake!"

The marine is suddenly struck by a beam of yellow electricity from the robot as it shakes it hand back and forth. His PCV was able to negate most of the damage, however Adrian did find that his left hand was a little more jittery than usual.

"NO SWEARING! THIS, MY DARLING, IS A FAMILY FRIENDLY SHOW! NOW PLEASE, ANSWER THE QUESTION."

Shephard glares at the robot, Mettaton, before looking at the ghost by the fridge who is currently laughing her ass off at his misfortune. The Corporal manages to throw a subtly middle finger in her direction as the machine takes a look at its nonexistent watch.

"Aww, is the big soldier too afraid to kiss a ghost? It's okay Adrian, I know you want to~ I am, after all, pretty irresistible." The ghost falls into another fit of laughter as Adrian shakes his head.

"Yes."

"GREAT ANSWER! I LOVE IT! NOW, FOR THE NEXT QUESTION?"

After that, the machine kept on throwing question after question at the marine, with each one more impossible than the last. Luckily, Adrian had Chara at his side ready to give him the answer to each and every single one, teasing him the whole time.

"WELL WELL WELL. THE SHOW HAS NO DRAMATIC QUESTIONS IF YOU CAN ANSWER EVERY QUESTION. WE CAN'T GO ON LIKE THIS! BUT. BUT THIS WAS JUST THE PILOT EPISODE!"

Adrian's eye twitches.

"NEXT UP, MORE DRAMA! MORE ROMANCE! MORE BLOODSHED! UNTIL NEXT TIME, HANDSOME!"

With his speech now done, the magical monster robot folds his arms and wheel into his body as an engine emerges from his back. The engine starts as Mettaton is lifted up into the air, through the ceiling, and out of sight.

"That was fun, wouldn't you say Adrian?"

"I felt like I was going to have an aneurysm."

A giggle comes from the ghost.

The ghost's laughter is cut off however as the light in the building turn off once again, causing Adrian to bring up his rifle and turn on his night vision. Chara doesn't notice anything out of place as Adrian swivels around. Everything is still there like it normally is. In fact, even the light switch is still flipped on. No Alphys still, as is somewhat expected since Adrian did kill her lover. The doors leading outside of the building suddenly shut close, trapping Adrian in here. Chara turns to the marine and sees him frozen as he stares up ahead down the hallway of the Lab. The ghost follows his graze before she suddenly stops as well.

In front of the now open door that leads to the True Lab, is a man that stands unusually still. The man is well dressed, with a suit that sports no imperfections, and a black tie placed perfectly on his collar. His eyes glow an ethereal green as they stare at the marine next to her. Chara takes a step back however as those same eyes turn and face her. An inhuman smile makes its way up the thing's face before it turns around and makes its way into the elevator that leads further into True Lab.

The marine takes a step forward and before she knows it he's already by the door. She quickly follows behind as they both take a look inside the empty elevator.

"Adrian?"

The marine doesn't answer.

The door behind them locks behind them as they enter the elevator. The room lurches as they are suddenly being brought down into a place that Chara has been down plenty of times before.

The True Lab


	12. Chapter 12: The True Lab

“Speech”

_ ‘Thoughts’  _

_ “Past speech and Gman” _

**_“Other”_ **

**“Text/misc”**

* * *

An electric ding echoed through the elevator as the door flew open, letting in a dense fog that seems to always be in the True Lab. The soldier next to her brought up his rifle and slowly advanced as his mask’s lenses brightened. The doors behind them shut as soon as Chara stepped out of the elevator, and she could hear the machine powering down already like it had always done in the past timelines. Adrian didn’t seem to notice however, instead he kept his focus forward as he made his way down the hall.

“Adrian. Who was that?”

Chara could see the marine visibly jump as he heard her voice. Did he forget that she was here she wondered? Her musings were cut short however as Adrian turned his head back to her as he kept his rifle aimed forward down the hall and into the impossibly thick fog.

“You saw him?” Shock was clear in his voice, which only confused Chara for a second before she regained her senses.

“Adrian.  _ Who was that? _ ” The phantom asked, more forcibly then before hand as she stared back at Adrian with her own crimson eyes. Chara gets no response as Adrian continues to stare back, his expression impossible to tell with his night vision on.

“Adrian, I told you about my secrets, now tell me about yours.”

“Please.”

Unknown to the phantom, Adrian was having his own inner debate in his head about the whole situation. He didn’t want to get Chara involved with  _ him _ . While he might not say it out loud. He’s grown extremely fond of Chara, more than he’s willing to admit to even himself, and would do anything to keep her out of  _ his  _ dirty little hands. On the other hand however, he can’t just keep this secret away from her forever. Not since she’s seen the stranger.

_ ‘Wait a second. If she can see him then… no, oh god no.’  _ The HECU marine thought as the realization hit him head on.

She’s already been involved.

“Chara… I’m so sorry.” Adrian says, his voice extremely shaky, causing Chara to blink.

“Adrian?”

Chara takes a step forward, but stops as she sees Adrian visibly flinch. A jolt of pain stabs at her heart, but she continues onwards nonetheless.

“Why did I have to get you involved in this? You never deserved this, not after everything you’ve gone through.”

A pale ghostly hand makes its way onto the soldier’s shoulder, silencing him.

“Adrian, please, calm down and tell me what the hell is going on.”

A quick glance down the hall shows that nothing has changed from their perspective. A wall of thick fog still blocks the hall further ahead. Adrian hesitates to put his weapon away without knowing what’s on the other side of said wall. 

“There’s no one coming Adrian. We're safe here.”

Adrian lowers the carbine as his body slumps backwards onto the nearby wall of the hallway and slides down onto the floor. Almost instantly, Chara is by the marine side as he stares down the hallway, avoiding eye contact. Not a word is said between the two as they both peer into the fog before the marine suddenly speaks up.

“ _ He’s _ the reason why I’m here, in the Underground. I never fell into a portal Chara, that thing brought me here, and  _ he  _ has been watching us ever since.” His voice is deadly silent.

“Who is he?”

A short laugh comes from Shephard. “I don’t know… A few days before Black Mesa, there were some odd occurrences happening at our base in Arizona. Training routines were becoming harder as we started to focus on CQB and indoor fighting. No one knew why. Then I was pushed forward onto the advance training list with no real reason. It was strange, but it all makes sense thinking back to it.” The marine takes off his helmet and respirator, and breathes in the dusty air of True Lab. “ _ He _ was there Chara, back in Arizona, and even in Black Mesa watching me and manipulating things behind the scenes. I could have escaped that place a lot sooner, but he would always shut the exit on me at the last possible second, all with that  _ damn _ smile.”

His voice gets quieter as he starts to break down.

“He used me as a tool, guiding me further and further into that hell hole as I tried to save as many people as I could, but it didn’t matter. The government, the one that I swore to protect, decided to nuke the entirety of Black Mesa with everyone still in it. Did I tell you that? Because that's what happened. I managed to stop it, but of course that didn’t fucken matter, because that suit came in right as I left and rearmed it right in my face. Jenkins, Johnson, Otis, all of those unnamed scientists and security guards, all obliterated in an instant.”

A memory of the large explosion flashes in Chara's eyes. A wall of fire engulfing everything in its path as the silhouette of that same man watches on.

“It was weird at first. I remember seeing him back at base, thought he was some sort of Gman, an agent from the government or something. Nothing seemed off, but once our training routine was changed, I started to see him more and more. Sometimes he would be talking to some higher up, and other times, he would just be watching from a window, observing. I asked others about him, but they didn’t know what I was talking about. They said they haven’t seen any Gman.” Another laugh. “Then we got to Black Mesa. There, the bastard would stop me from escaping, always leading me further and further in the depths of the facility.”

“So, I made it all the way till I found this huge ass alien coming from a portal, so naturally, I killed it. I thought it was going to end there as the foundation was crumbling around me, but no,  _ he  _ had other plans. The bastard teleported me away to a VTOL and said I was simply a  _ loose end _ in Black Mesa, and that I needed to be taken care of. So he stuck me in some void and left me.”

Chara leans closer to the soldier as he vents out his frustration.

“That’s not the best part however. No no no. The best part is that he had the gall to come back and ‘assign’ me a mission.” Adrian green eyes stare into Chara’s. 

“Chara, he wants me to collect the Souls from the king.”

Chara doesn’t speak, instead she simply lean intos Shephard as the two fall into silence, with the only noise being that of the humming of the TV screens on the walls. A tear falls down the soldier’s face as he stares ahead. “Now, he's dragged you into this.”

“Adrian, he’s the one after the Souls, I was going to be dragged into this regardless. Now, how do we kill him?”

“Kill him?” The marine shakes his head. “I don’t think you can kill him. He won’t let you get the chance, and even if you do, he’ll probably just teleport you to that same void that he sent me to.”

Chara doesn’t say anything at first, before she suddenly gets up and offers her hand to the marine.

“Then I guess we’ll have to get the Souls then, huh partner?”

Adrian looks up in shock.

“What?”

“Come on, if this suit wearing bastard is so tough, then we’ll just get the Souls, and go on our merry way, and if he tries to pull something on us… Well, he’ll have to deal with  _ both _ of us. So get off your lazy ass, and let's get a move on soldier-boy.”

The marine hesitates for a second, giving Chara a reason to worry that her little spiel wasn’t enough before suddenly, Adrian smiled behind his mask. 

He grabs Chara’s outstretched hand and pulls himself up.

“I guess your right… partner.”

Chara smiles back.

* * *

Monitors lined the halls as the two continued their trek through the True Lab. Each one detailing the story that Chara already knew of. Monsters brought back from the brink of death through the power of Determination, the joy from Alphys as she got ready to send them home, to her sheer horror as the monsters were twisted beyond belief into abominations that made one question their sanity. 

Adrian didn’t say a word as Chara told him the story, his mind still focused on the man that led them here in the first place. Chara can’t blame him, another manipulating entity in the Underground is not something that she is taking lightly. 

Especially if what the voice in her head said is true.

**_“By the one who brought on this change. For HE wishes to use the keys. For HE is an INTERLOPER. For HE is an ENIGMA.”_ **

If that man is the reason for the time skip and the aliens in the Dump, then they have a problem. No other Entity other than the Souls, or one that had them, have been able to overpower Frisk’s ability to save. Even Chara wasn’t never able to. She simply took Frisk’s Soul and Reset herself. Chara was never able to do anything else with the Soul. So for this thing to be able to Reset, it’s… worrying to say the least.

The two walk past the vending machine and through the open door way that leads to the elevator out of True Lab. So far they've haven’t encountered any monsters that normally roam around here. Only more fog and monitors. It’s odd, they’ve gone through half of True Lab yet there still no sign of anything. Why would this entity lead them here if there nothing down here, the ghost thought to herself. 

It wasn’t till they got to the elevator that would take them out of the lab did they find something out of place. There was a mechanical door that wasn’t there during the last run and next to the doorway was another monitor.

The marines' blood went cold as he read the text.

**Subjects were brought in for study. These creatures are possibly the strangest things I’ve ever seen, their DNA structure is vastly different from anything encountered before and the same goes for their Souls. While we might be limited in our knowledge of the outside world thanks to the Barrier, these subjects' mere existence go against so many beliefs that we’ve held onto for so long.**

Adrian didn’t look excited about what the message entailed, and understandably so. He’s seen what happened the last time someone tried to study the aliens, and it went horribly. So to see the same thing happen again in the Underground sends a shiver down his spine. However he wasn’t going to go and do anything about it. He just wants to get out of here and forget about them.

Chara wasn’t as surprised, taking some of the aliens for study seemed like something Alphys would do. In fact, she should have seen it coming. However that does bring up the question of why Undyne thought Adrian was responsible for the Royal Guards death in the Dump if she knew the aliens resided there. Or did Alphys keep the aliens existence hidden, just like her last experiments?

“God damnit.” The marine swore as he pushed the elevator door button, only to get no response. “Power’s out for the elevator.”

The ghost pointed down to the right where a mechanical door was located. Above the door was a sign that read “power” in bright red. Adrian simply nodded to Chara as he made his way over there. A big bright red button sat in the middle of the door. Pressing it, the marine expected the door to open, but instead, it stayed shut. He pressed it again to see if it would work this time but was met with the same results.

“Of course it's not that easy.” Adrian turned back around “Chara, is there another way out of here?”

The ghost shook her head.

The only path left for them to take now was the door next to the elevator. The door was unlocked surprisingly. It brought them down another hallway that looked much like the last, however this time there were no monitors this time. The two made it to the end of the hall that split off in a V style. The right hall led to a number of different doorways, each one identical to the last sans the monitors that hung above them. The left on the other kept on going until not even Adrian could see with his night vision thanks to how thick the fog became. 

“Which way now.”

The ghost shook her head. “No clue, this place wasn’t here before. If I were you however I would try the right hall first, see if there’s anything useful like a map.”

“A map would be nice.” 

They went to the first door they saw that was labeled “Samples” on the monitor. It opened as soon as the marine came within range of it’s sensor, allowing him to walk in without a problem. In the room, were flasks and beakers that were filled with all sorts of liquids. The labels told them that some were simple mixtures of various chemicals, while others were labeled as “Determination.” One flask however was filled with a green liquid and had the label “Blood Samples” taped on it. Adrian knew instantly that it was from the aliens, he spilled it so many times that he can tell just by a glance. They left that room and continued on towards the next one, this one labeled “Storage A”. Again, the pair was met with a variety of equipment, chemicals, and other such materials. The rest of the rooms were very much the same, with only the last one, the “Notes” room being the only thing that looked somewhat promising. 

Adrian sweeped the room with his M4 carbine like he’s done for the other rooms, and like those rooms, it was completely unnecessary. Chara walked on over to one of the counters while Adrian checked the cabinets, all of which were filled with piles upon piles of notes and sketches of things that went way beyond Shephard. Chara on the other hand, was having a much easier time sorting through them since the counter was much more neatly organized. Like Adrian however, many of the notes were complete nonsense to her. She was about to give up when she stumbled upon a note with the letter “G” on it. Her curiosity was piqued, as she only knew one person in the Underground that went by that letter.

Turning the piece of paper around, the ghost examined the note. On the back were a long series of symbols that she couldn’t decipher the meaning of, at least not completely. She did understand a few key words however. Things like “The Dump”, and “Containment” stuck out from the rest. Her train of thought was soon interrupted by Adrian.

“I couldn’t find anything useful. Just more notes pertaining to unrelated topics. What did you find there?”

Chara handed the slip of paper to the marine. “Just some notes from the last Royal Scientist. He was known for coming up with his own language, so I couldn’t really understand most of it, however I did see the words “Dump” and “Containment '' come up.

Adrian nodded his head and looked at the slim piece of paper. It was old, very old in fact. However that wasn’t what caught Adrian’s attention. The symbols on the paper looked familiar to Adrian, but he can’t remember where for the life of him. He stared at the note for a while, hoping that it would jog his memory, but nothing came of it. After a few seconds he simply put the paper down as the two made their way out of the room and down the left hall. 

This hall was very much like the last one, a common theme it seems. The only difference being that the monitors that lined the walls had power and were turned on for once. Red text glared back at the pair.

**I don’t think I’ll ever understand what these creatures are. They are completely alien in every regard. In fact, some of them aren’t even related to each other. While their Souls share many similarities, they also have many different characteristics based on species and the same goes for DNA.**

That’s somewhat new to Adrian. He initially thought that all of the creatures were related to each other. They did come from Xen. The only exception he can think of was Race X, the alien force that invaded shortly after the Xenians. 

**I tried to find everything I could about them, but it was in vain. All showed extreme hostility to me and any other monster that got near them. Everything I do know is only thanks to the few that are in containment, but again, they are less than ideal. I tried putting up cameras in the Dump, but most end up destroyed before they pick up anything useful about them.**

The fog in the room was becoming increasingly thick, making it harder to see further then a few feet even with Adrian’s built in night vision.

**I found something really disturbing about these creatures.**

**I dug up some old notes from the storage unit, most of them went beyond even me. G really was a genius thinking back to it. Anyways, back on topic. The notes detailed an expedition he took into the Dump 22 years back, the day before the place was declared off limits. He noted a severe lack of human trash, which was strange at the time, but nothing too unusual. Things started to get more disturbing the further he went however. Strange, ghastly smells, choked the air, making it hard to breathe, and his equipment, the best of it’s time, started to freak out. That’s when he saw something. Whatever it was, it freaked him out, because a huge section of the notes are scribbled out after this. Everything that I could make out was simply incoherent ramblings about how the Dump had to be shut down. The writing that isn’t scribbled out afterwards is what really concerns me however.**

Adrian stopped as he stared at the monitor in front of him.

**He described growths on the Dump ceiling, strange three legged dogs, and large two legged beasts that spat acid. The descriptions and sketches fit the creatures to a T. It’s hard to imagine that these things have been hiding right under our noses for more than 20 years**

Bile rose in Adrian’s throat as he read the last portion of the text. His legs became heavy as his mind went blank while Chara stood next to him. His rifle fell on the ground, causing the ghost to look his way in confusion.

“Adrian?”

His legs gave way as he stared at the screen through the fog. Chara was by his side in an instant, concerned for his well being. She followed the marines graze and read the text. The ghost confusion grew as she read it again and again, not understanding what caused the Corporal to freak out. She was about to ask him what was wrong before he asked her a question.

“Chara… You said that it was a different year from the last Reset.”

The ghost nodded

“Chara, what year is it?” His voice was quiet again as he continued to stare up ahead at the text on the screen unmoving.

“2041.” As she said this did it register with Chara why Adrian was suddenly so downtrodden. Her hand made its way to the marine’s shoulder once again, giving him a reassuring squeeze.

“Adrian, what year was it before you came to the Underground?”

The soldier didn’t answer, but it was all the confirmation that the phantom needed to confirm her suspicion.

“2041, 22 years. I’m 22 years into the future.” The marine whispered to himself

“THAT FUCKING BASTARD!!!”

Chara didn’t say anything as the soldier got up and shouted down the hall and into the fog.

“THEY WON DIDN’T THEY YOU FREAK? THAT’S WHY THEY'RE HERE, BECAUSE THEY WON. HUMANITY IS DEAD AND YOU DIDN’T EVEN GIVE ME THE CHANCE TO GO DOWN WITH THEM! WHY? 

“Why?”

The marine got no response, instead he felt a pair of arms wrap around him as tears threatened to fill his respirator. 

Adrian knew it was possible that the aliens won in the end ever since he saw them in the Dump, how else could they have gotten down there, but this was just too much. He held hope that maybe  _ he _ put them there, or something. But now, the evidence now sits right in front of him in the form of digitized text. 

Why did he do it? Why did he “save” him out of all people? Just because he reminded the thing of itself? The thought brought up feelings of rage. The two of them have nothing in common, he thought to himself. That thing does nothing but watch as others fight and die, all alone and afraid. That’s what he is right now. Alone and afraid. Everything he fought for, all of the horrors he went through, it was for naught. They won, and he might be the last man on Earth. 

“Adrian… Please don’t give up. You just gotta stay determined Adrian.”

Chara’s words rung in his head. Stay determined, she said. But why? What's left for him. Humanity is gone, devoured by beings from beyond our fabric of reality, and nothing can change that. 

“I know what it’s like to be alone Adrian, it’s a terrible feeling, but you're not alone. What about Spitball? Sparky? Are you going to just forget about them?”

Chara leans closer to him, while Sparky and Spitball come out of his bag and curl around their masters' arms, trying to comfort him in the only way they can. 

The marine didn’t say anything as he looked at all of his companions. An odd bunch. A marine betrayed and left to fend for himself, an alien used as a tool of destruction, and a baby that’s been taken from it’s home and experimented on.

“What about me?”

Then there’s Chara, the girl who had to watch her world be destroyed over and over again. The girl, who he has begun to care about more than he thought possible despite the very short amount of time they’ve known each other. The girl who went through so much, but persevered nonetheless.

Each and everyone of them are depending on him. Can he really just abandon them? Just like how his government abandoned him? 

Something stirred deep within him. Something primal, something that allowed him to persevere before. A desire to help them. There might not be much left on the Surface, but he can still care for them. He can make do. Maybe, he can find a way to live peacefully down here, with the rest of Monsterkind. It would be a long shot, but it could work. Worst case scenario, he retrieves the Souls and leaves this place behind and they start anew, away from that  _ thing _ . That could work. He failed everyone else, but that doesn’t mean he has to fail his companions too.

He  _ will _ continue forward, and give them all the life they deserve.

Adrian, is filled with DETERMINATION.

The marine puts his hand over the phantoms.

“I’m not leaving any of you behind Chara. This changes nothing.”

A contagious smile makes its way up the ghost face as she peers into Adrian’s eyes behind the respirator. 

“We’ll get through this.” She takes his hand and envelops the marines. “Together. Partner.”

The two continue to stare for a second longer before the sound of someone coming further down the hall causes the marine to jump for his discarded M4 and take aim. A silhouette can be seen walking through the fog, a large being whose shape would leave lesser men sobbing in sheer horror. 

“An Amalgamate.” The ghost besides him says. 

The Amalgamite takes another step with it’s many legs as it’s center orifice stares straight at the marine. A loud screeching noise emanates from the creature as it drags its back leg behind it. None of that matters to the marine. 

For his focus was on the headcrab latched onto the things neck.

The Corporal aimed his rifle straight at the parasitic alien on the things neck, and depressed the trigger before he was suddenly interrupted.

“Hey!”

The Amalgamate stopped in its track as a small lizard-like monster dressed in scientist attire came up from behind the thing, causing the marine to lower his rifle a little bit. The monster said something to the creature, which caused it to slowly lumber it’s way back down the hall with the alien still munching on its neck. Once it was out of sight, the small monster turned to him and took a step back.

“Oh my god! Your the human? I thought you were still in Waterfall? How did you get down here? I made sure to lock the door on my way down. What  _ are  _ you doing down here, and why do you have a gun? How much do you know?”

The marine brought up his hand to silence the monster who was still asking a series of rapid fast questions. The small monster, Alphys, stopped her ramblings as she developed a bashful expression.

“Sorry. I… um, Doctor Alphys, the Royal Scientist for the crown. I’m, um sorry that you had to see that. You probably already know about them if you got this far. By the way, what are you doing down here anyways?”

The marine turns to his partner, before looking back at the small scientist monster in front of him. 

“The elevator door was wide open, and well, curiosity got the better of me.” He shrugs his shoulders.

“Oh.” The doctor’s cheeks become bright pink as embarrassment comes into full effect.

“Why was that crab on that thing?”

The doctor blinks. “What?”

Adrian gestures further down the hall where the Amalgamate was heading. A second passes before Alphys suddenly realizes what the marine is talking about.

“Oh that. There one of the creatures that I’ve been studying for a while now. As for why it’s on them. Well the two have developed a sort of symbiotic relationship. The parasite gets an unlimited source of food without hurting it’s host, and Endogeny gets a friend to carry around. Say, do you know anything about the parasite, or anything like it.”

Again, the soldier turns to his partner only to receive a shrug from the ghost. Turning back to Aphys, the marine contemplates what he should tell the monster. Eventually he decides that he might as well tell her the basics.

“I do. Yes.”

“Really? That’s awesome!” The doctor exclaimed, waving her arms around sporadically. “Tell you what, you tell me everything that you know about them, and in exchange, I’ll help you get to the Barrier. How does that sound?”

“Sounds fine to me.” 

“Yes! Right this way please.” She motions further down the hall. 

Adrian follows the small scientist as they make their way past a number of rooms and monitors. The pair eventually make it to a room labeled “Specimen X001A” with an ID scanner next to the door. Alphys brings out a plastic card and brings it up for the machine to read it. A small  _ ding _ is heard as the door slides open, allowing the soldier a look inside.

Not much is different compared to the last few rooms he and Chara searched through. Science equipment and notes line a dozen of different tables, with each one properly labeled and categorized. However it’s what is in the middle of the room that grabs his attention. Standing a few feet tall and suspended in the air by numerous supports is an orange crystal. Clean cracks and fractures can be seen all over its otherwise perfect surface. 

Adrian does a double take as he stares at the Xenian crystal in the middle of the room as a bunch of different questions swirl in his mind, however one was more prevalent then the others.

“Where did you get that?” The marine exclaimed as he pointed at the alien crystal.

The monster scientist glanced back before going over to the crystal. 

“This is one of my newest specimens. I found it at the edge of the Dump with an unconscious creature not found in the Underground. I’ve been probing it for a while now, but so far, I found nothing special about it other than the fact that it is made up of no known elements on the periodic table, nor does it have any magical properties. I was wondering if you knew anything about it? I assume you have it on the surface.”

_ ‘Other than the fact that they come from a different dimension, no,’  _ is what the marine wanted to say, but that wouldn’t go well. Instead he simply shaked his head.

Alphys shoulders visibly fell. “Oh. Well I got more specimens in the containment room, and don’t worry about being attacked, I took all of the necessary precautions in advance.

_ ‘That makes me feel so much better.’ _ Adrian thought to himself.

The good doctor led them out of the room and back into the hallway. From here, the two continued forward in silence as Chara followed close behind. Chara noted that the Lab was much smaller before the Reset, saying that it must be at least twice it’s original size by now. Adrian didn’t respond, it would be odd for the monster to see him talking to himself, it also might raise some suspicion.

Alphys eventually stopped in front of a heavy bulkhead, which made Adrian appreciate that there were indeed some form of security in this place. The small monster scientist pushed a series of keypads before the bulkhead started to split in two outwards into a sealed room, which contained another large bulkhead. Again, the monster keyed in some type of pass code which caused the bulkhead behind them to close, and the one in front of them to open.

Blinding light flooded in from the other side as the fog dispersed into the large open room. A catwalk greeted the soldier, along with a large number of 3 meter high pods. A floor below them, two Amalgamates wandered aimlessly around, as headcrabs were latched onto their bodies. The sound of machinery and steam came from every direction as Alphys led the soldier and ghost down the catwalk. A sudden bang rang from one of the pods as they walked by it, causing Adrian to tighten his grip on his M4.

“Don’t worry, they're completely sealed off. They aren't going anywhere,” Aphys commented.

Adrian didn’t lessen his grip.

They eventually made it across the room where a mechanical door greeted them. Unlike last time, the door opened as soon as they got close enough. The other side was lined with monitors upon monitors, all of which were turned off. That changed however once the monster scientist pressed a series of keys on a console station in the middle of the room. The monitors all turned in tangent with each other. Each one showed what looked like the inside of the pods outside. A portion of them were completely bare, with nothing inside of them. 

The others on the other hand.

They showed almost every type of alien Adrian fought in Black Mesa, causing him to take a step back in shock as he realized just how many of them there were just outside the room. Bullsquids, houndeyes, barnacles, headcrabs, and even a few of the hulking Xenian soldiers; minus their armor or bug launcher. Then there were some that he didn’t know, like a large red dog-like creature that spots a horn and claws as big as Adrian’s body, or the ones that look like miniaturized pterodactyl.

“Where the fuck did you find all of these things?”

The doctor looked over at him.

“In the Dump. I had to take some of the Kings Royal Guard in order to capture some of these, those that swore an oath of secrecy. Not all of them made it back… So what do you know about these guys? Where they came from and what not.”

The marine opens his mouth to speak but is soon interrupted as all of the screens start to spasm out, while his radio produces an ear piercing static that threatens to make him bleed. Alphys, surprisingly, doesn’t seem that surprised by this sudden development into chaos. Instead, she looks more annoyed than anything else, which earns a raised eyebrow from Chara.

“That would be another one of the specimens, the one that came in with the crystal in fact.” A few keys are pressed on the console, which stops the ear piercing static and allows the monitors to come back online. The doctor gives the marine a thumbs up as turns back to the console before the static returns again.

“That’s never happened before! Um, I’ll be right back, I need to go check on the specimen. Just stay right here.” A door opens on the other side of the room, which Alphys quickly runs to. The marine waits a second as the static still fills his ears before the door shuts, leaving him alone with Chara.

“I don’t like this one bit.”

Chara glanced over to him.

The ghost doesn’t answer, but in her head, she can’t help to agree. Before long, the pair had already passed the door that Alphys went through. A very short walk down an empty hallway led them to a closed doorway. The static stopped as soon as they reached the door, which caused Adrian to pause as Chara stood next to him. A second pass before the Corporal continued forward, his M4 was brought up as prepared to enter. 

The door opened and he made his way inside. A relatively small room greeted him that was devoid of any equipment that was in the previous rooms they’ve seen down here. In the center of the room was Alphys, typing something on a console, and in front of said console, was a sealed off pod that, unlike the last ones, had a large window that allowed anyone to view what was inside.

Chara stared at the hovering creature inside. A disportianly large head stands atop a small body with a third arm sticking out of it’s chest that has three long and deadly looking claws on the end of it. Two thin, fragile looking arms hang in the air as the legs dangle in the air as the thing swivels it’s body mid flight and towards the marine and ghost. Three blood red eyes stare back at Chara.

The voice from before echoes in her head as she stares back at it.

**_“Slaves... we are all slaves.”_ **

Then all hell breaks loose.

* * *

Adrian was too focused on the alien itself to notice the particles of yellow energy gathering by the alien controller’s containment pod. Metal buckled as the particles pushed up against it. Static filled the room as every machine started to go haywire. Glass shattered as the alien made a high pitch screech and reared its arm back. A ball of yellow energy formed in it’s clawed hand, while the other one had particles swirling around it. Before Adrian could even bring up his M4, the alien brought the orb down and sent it flying to the marine. He dodged the projectile, but it exploded into a dozen of smaller orbs that spread throughout the rest of the room. Adrian’s PCV’s shielding flared as the energies foriegn to this reality burned everything it touched. Alphys fell onto her back as her console was surrounded by the same energy which proceeded to crush it. The wall behind Chara caved in on itself and the alien made a beeline for it’s escape. 

Four rounds exited from Adrian’s M4, two missed as the alien sped through the room with haste.The other two collided with the creature's large head and went right through it. Despite what would be a mortal injury for most sentient creatures, the alien flew out of the room and down the hall with. 

With static still ringing in his ear, Adrian ran down out of the room, ignoring the monster doctor on the floor. He followed a path of destruction back to the monitor with Chara right behind him. The doors were ripped open by the aliens telekinesis that tore apart metal like tin foil. The rest of the room was in a similar state of disarray despite the short amount of time the alien was in there, however some of the monitors still worked and were showing the other aliens banging up against their containment pods without pause. He and Chara quickly made their way out of the room just as Alphys entered. 

An amalgamate stood on the catwalk with Adrian. As he made his way pass the mutant, his radio went silent before a whisper came from it.

_ “He’s angry.” _

Adrian glanced over to the amalgamate, before making his down the crosswalk, ignoring the banging of the aliens trying to escape and the ear piercing static that came from his radio once again. He made it to the other side to find that a few of the pods were  _ gone _ . The bulkheads, which were made of solid metal, were also caved in by the alien, allowing fog to flood into the room.

“Where is that thing going?”

Adrian didn’t respond to the ghost, instead he had Sparky and Spitball latch onto his arm, and brought up his M4. The soldier quickly sprinted through the door, and down the hallway, following the trail of devastation left in the controller’s wake. He pumped his legs as fast as he could, trying to catch up to the bastard, but no matter how fast he ran, the thing was still nowhere in sight. Eventually however, his running paid off as he found one of the doors down the hall teared off it’s frame.

“Adrian, the crystal.”

The marine didn’t need to be told twice. 

He ran into the room, gun raised and ready for a fight. The alien was on the other side of the room, cradling the xenian crystal between it’s three clawed arms. The being looked at Adrian as a distorted alien voice rang from both his  _ and _ Chara’s mind.

**“Too late…”**

Adrian fired off a round that went straight to the alien’s face. After the nano second it took for the round to cross the distance between the two, it made contact.

Against an orange hexagonal shield.

“What?”

A table rose upwards in the air before being crushed into a ball of bent metal and broken wood. The controller’s arm, covered in numerous yellow orbs, swung forward, and the table was hurled towards Adrian. He went into a combat roll and narrowly avoided the thrown projectile as it crashed into the laboratory wall with a loud clang.

**“Fool… Shephard… You are a fool...”**

Adrian got out his roll and ran straight towards the alien.

**[Black Mesa - Ascension]**

Immediately, the creature brought up one of its arms, and shot three beams Adrian’s way in a frantic and unpredictable pattern, cutting up lab equipment in the process. One of those beams hit Adrian dead on, causing him to stumble back as his PCV’s shield was brought dangerously close to collapsing. Nonetheless, he continued his sprint towards the alien. He aimed his M4 right at one of the hexagons that had deflected his last round. Still running, the soldier sent a hail of gunfire downrange. Like last time, they impacted the shield. The first volley hit one of the hexagonal sections, but just as it looked like it was going to break, the shield moved, and another hexagonal section absorbed the rest of the soldier’s gunfire.

Adrian reached the floating alien and lunged at it as he took out his combat knife. The controller, aware of the Corporal’s next plan of action, floated upwards at the last section, causing the knife to only skid alongside the shield. In retaliation, the alien controller shot highly charged orbs at the marine, hoping it would bring the human to its end.

Adrian backpedaled as the balls of energy hit the surface in front of him and exploded. It was around this time that the voice, who he was going to assume was the controller, spoke up again.

**“My master… dead… My master is** **_dead_ ** **.”** Another onslaught of orbs exploded in front of Shephard as he went into a roll and behind a flipped table.  **“Now we’re slaves… We are all now slaves.”**

Adrian didn’t respond, but he did wonder what the thing was talking about. They won after all, otherwise they wouldn’t be here. His train of thought was interpreted as his cover was flung to the other side of the room by the things telekinetic powers. Thinking on his feet, he fired another burst from his rifle, however this time he made sure to keep his aim on only one segment. The segment finally broke, but the controller sent another beam Adrian’s way before he could capitalize on his opening. Again, the marine was able to dodge all except for one beam which grazed his shoulder.

The shield rotated as the alien being brought up the Xenian crystal in it’s arm. A yellow aura shot forth to the shield, repairing not only the broken segment, but the damaged ones as well.  **“Come… come to me…”**

Before Adrian could even process what the voice said, he heard Chara shout his name. Turning around, the soldier saw two alien soldiers walk into the room. Large hulking beasts that could snap him in half like a twig. One of them looked his way, it’s eyes locked onto his form, and it roared a challenge. The other advanced behind it’s brother as they moved to pumble him to death. A green ball of slime and acid collided with the leading alien, burning away the creature's skin as it took a step back and roared in either pain or annoyance, most likely the latter. Adrian fired another acid grenade from Spitball, this time nailing it straight in its face. Again, it only staggered back as its friend ran towards the marine. The controller was not idle either, another orb of energy was hurled at Adrian, causing him to retreat further into a corner as one of the hulking aliens charged him.

At the last possible second, he rolled under its arm as it collided with the wall, denting it in the process. A ball of bent metal collided with the soldier mid roll, causing him to stagger and fall on the ground. The other alien he shot earlier with Spitball tried to stomp on the soldier’s head. It’s massive foot missed as the marine rolled on the ground. Adrian brought out his knife and stabbed it in the appendage that almost caved in his head. The Xen grunt roared and swiftly kicked the Corporal with enough force to send him halfway across the room. He quickly got up as a table collided with him. 

**“We were enslaved… we were enslaved because of** **_your_ ** **kind.”**

A beam hit Adrian in his side, bringing down his PCV’s shield to 0. He looked up as the somewhat injured alien grunt charged at him, ready to cave his head in. The creature brought down it’s arm in an attempt to squish him. Shephard jumped back as the arm made contact with the ground. Not wanting to miss his chance, the marine jumped forward  _ onto _ the creature with his sidearm drawn. Grabbing onto the side of it’s head, and bracing one of his feet on its massive bulky body, Adrian aimed the Desert Eagle right between the creature's eyes. Adrian enjoyed the brief look of confusion on its face, or what he assumed was confusion, before he pulled the trigger, sending a .357 round straight through its skull and out the other side. 

Adrian jumped off the dead alien as it fell backwards onto the ground, leaking its green blood all over the laboratory floor. It’s friend did not take kindly to it’s comrades death, and promptly rushed to the human soldier. It crashed into him, sending him flying out of the room.

Blood leaked out Adrian’s mouth as he collided with the wall outside of the lab. Every muscle in his body cried in agony as he stood up, causing him to wince. He aimed his M4 just as the alien grunt walked out of the lab and pulled the trigger.

His gun clicked empty.

The alien, not known for its use of advance tactics, charged the marine just like its fallen brethren did before it. Unlike its brethren however, it did not intend to squish the soldier, but rather send him flying back into the wall. So as Adrian tried to side step the charging alien, he ended up walking straight into one of its arms which flung him back into the wall behind him. 

Adrian didn’t move as the creature picked him up by his neck and got ready to slam him into the ground. However the creature soon found that the human wasn’t unconscious as a combat knife was jabbed right into the side of it’s head. Despite it not killing it, the grunt did drop the soldier as it let out a mighty roar. Once Shephard made contact with the ground, he quickly let Sparky crawl on his arm and aimed the alien right at the Xenian’s head. A ball of plasma slammed into its face, followed closely by another and another, with each one burning more and more of it’s rather hard skin that covered its face. The creature spasmed as electricity coursed through its entire body. The alien's face was soon completely gone once the marine stopped firing, causing the body to slump forward and almost crush Adrian under its sheer mass. He quickly got out of the way as the thing collided with the wall and slumped down towards the ground with a loud crash.

Adrian, bleeding and bruised, turned back to the lab where the alien controller was still waiting. Running in with Sparky aimed at it, he sent plasma hurling straight towards the creature, however it simply moved out of the way before the shot could land. Sparky wasn’t the only one helping Adrian, because as soon as the controller stopped moving, a ball of acid exploded on its protective shield. Three of the hexagons were close to breaking, but they were quickly switched with new undamaged ones.

**“Time… So much time has passed… It is not the same… The surface is not the same… The surface.”** Three yellow energy bombs flew towards the marine, all of which he dodged.  **“Prophecies… False prophecies will not save your kind, for they deserve their fate.”**

Before the creature could launch another one of its attacks on the human soldier, a miniatur robot that resembled Mettaton crashed into its protective barrier and exploded. Turning its attention back to the exit showed Alphys, with more of the robots hovering around her. 

“I don’t know what you are,” the lizard monster shouted over the static, “but I’m sorry for locking you up. Surely we can come to some sort of agreement without killing each other?” 

The controller took note of the monster that imprisoned it, and noticed that the creature was shivering in fright. So, it launched a beam straight at the small creature, only for the robots to form a protective wall around her, stopping the attack. As the alien turned to deal with the new threat, Adrian was able to get behind it and find the damaged portion of the shield. He brought up Sparky, aimed, and fired at the damaged sections, causing them to burst apart. Another shot hit the alien straight in its back as it was preparing to attack Alphys once again. The creature let out an ear piercing shriek as it stumbled forward in the air. More robots slammed into the front section of it’s shield, causing it to flicker.

**“No… No… NOOOO!!!”** An invisible force pushed everything away from the creature as the crystal grew brighter in intensity. Adrian flew backwards and collided with the wall as everything in the room started floating in the air due to the sudden wind the creature was causing. Panels from the wall and floor were peeled away as the static coming from Adrian’s radio grew in intensity. 

Alphys had her magical machines take hold of her so she wouldn’t go flying like the human. Her relief was short lived however, as the alien shot out dozens of small beams that destroyed all of her robots. Once they were taken care of, the creature charged up a single powerful beam it prepared to fire on the small scientist. A ball of acid collided with it’s now fully repaired shield right as it unleashed the beam.

While it’s aim was thrown off thanks to Adrian, the lance of energy still cut through Alphys right arm, causing it to turn to dust which was then blown away due to the intense winds. She didn’t move, she simply stared where her arm once was. After a brief moment of shock however, the Royal Scientist looked back at the alien as she fell onto her knees.

“Asgore… Undyne… I’m… sorry I wasn’t good… enough.” With those passing words, Alphys, the Royal Scientist of King Asgore, and secret admirer of Undyne, turned to dust.

**“Unaware… The creature died unaware of the happening of it’s home… Unaware…”** The creature turned back to Adrian, revealing that it’s eyes now glow a fierce yellow. 

Adrian fired off another ball of plasma at the creature which only proved to annoy it as it collodied harmlessly against it’s shield. Not letting the human stay on the offensive for long, the controller fired off three explosive orbs in quick succession. They missed their mark as the marine jumped to the side before they could touch him, causing them to explode as they came in contact with the ground. A console embedded into the wall of the lab was torn out as the alien brought up one of its hands. With a simple flick of the wrist, the panel flew at Adrian at unavoidable speeds. The Corporal was sent flying back once again as the piece of metal collided with him. 

Chara ran to the marine’s side and attempted to help the injured soldier up. Before she could however, she found herself flung  _ away _ from him by an unseen force. She wasn’t hurt, but the sudden movement did disorient her. Looking towards the alien showed that the creature was staring straight at her, which caused her eyes to widen in shock.

_ ‘It can see me?’ _ She yelled in her head. Her thought was interrupted however as the voice from the Ruins ranged in her head again.

**_“Gifted… His kind is gifted…”_ ** The ghost briefly wondered if the entity in her head was related in any way to the alien, considering it’s speech pattern and the fact that it knows about it. 

Rounds of 5.56mm slammed into the alien shield, causing one of the segmented portions to break apart in the fashion as glass. The controller quickly spun it’s shield, readjusting it so that a new segment was facing the marine behind it. It turned itself to face the troublesome human. As it turned to the human, it found that it already crossed the distance between the two and was nearly upon it. Knowing that a melee against the same human that killed so many of it’s underlings and defeated the  _ Outsider _ invasion would be suicide, it shot wave after wave of attacks at the human, most of which missed. The few that did hit the soldier caused Adrian to wince in pain, nonetheless, he never broke from his run. 

Brandishing his knife and one hand and wrench in the other, the soldier closed the last few feet between the two and jumped. He plunged his knife in one of the shield segments. The controller flew upwards in a frantic manner as it tried to get the human off it’s protective barrier. Using the knife as a way to hold on to the alien, Adrian swung his pipe wrench against the shield. The wrench bounced as it made contact, but that didn’t deter the marine in the slightest. He brought it down against the shield again, and again until finally, the segment broke. The controller brought up the crystal and tried to restore the shield, but before he could, the marine swung the wrench inside the barrier and knocked it out of it’s hand. Once it was out of it hit the ground, the shield disappeared, causing Adrian to fall off as his knife had nothing to hold onto.

Shephard landed into a crouch, as the creature made a beeline for the crystal. Bringing out his sidearm, he took aim, and fired. The round tore through one of the alien’s thin arms, completely sheering it off from the body from the elbow up. Green fluids spilled out of the wound as the thing let out a screech of sheer agony. The static coming from the radio suddenly stopped as the alien fell out the sky and onto the laboratory floor. A resounding thud echoed through the room. 

Adrian, bloodied and bruised from the fight, walked up to the dying creature as Chara walked beside him. The two found the creature still alive on the ground, although barely. Green alien blood still leaked from the wound, and it’s eyes were much darker as it clung to life. It looked at the human, and projected it’s voice into Adrian’s mind.

**“Prophecies… False prophecies… You… You are nothing but a puppet…”** The creature let out a weak cough as it slowly slipped away.  **“You stopped the Outsiders… But… We are all still there** **_SLAVES…_ ** **Freeman took our master… And in return,** **_THEY_ ** **took your world.”** Adrian brought up his Desert Eagle and aimed it right in between the alien’s multiple sets of eyes.  **“You will never wi-”**

Adrian pulled the trigger, and the alien dropped dead.

“What the hell was that thing talking about?” The ghost next to him asked. Adrian could only shrug his shoulder as he stared at the dead controller by his feet. Looking over the room showed that it was a complete mess. Panels from the wall and ceiling were missing, tables were crushed and, in some cases, lodged into what remained of the wall. Fog permeated the room along with dust from the monster that the alien killed. Broken machinery lay scattered everywhere, and blood, both his and the aliens, stained the floor. 

Looking over to the crystal, the marine was shocked to see that it was hovering off the ground in an almost majestic manner. Small arches of yellow lightning struck the floor at random intervals. He was so shocked and mesmerized by the strange phenomenon, that he didn’t even notice that Chara was walking towards it until she was already a few feet away from it.

Adrian looked over to his partner. “Chara?” The marine received no answer as the ghost walked right up to the Xen artifact in a trance-like state.

Chara didn’t know why, but she felt as if the crystal was calling her. It was a nagging feeling that the ghost couldn’t describe. It was like something was compelling, no, pushing her to the strange alien crystal. She reached out to the artifact, ignoring Adrian as he asked what she was doing. 

Her hand made contact, and her world went dark.

“Chara!” The marine screamed as he saw the ghost disappear, however before he could do anything, the Xenian crystal shot out a beam of electricity that collided with him, knocking him down.

As Adrian slowly went into a state of unconsciousness, he could see that  _ thing _ ’ _ s _ smug face staring back at him from across the room. 

“You… bastard…” 

Adrian's world went black.

* * *

Chara opened her eyes to the sound of rotary blades spinning. Looking around, the first human found herself standing in some sort of military VTOL flying over the New Mexico desert. 

_ “So, Corporal Shephard, we meet at last.” _

Chara froze. That voice, it was filled with so much  _ wrongness _ that her nonexistent body was screaming at her to run, to get as far away as possible. The scenery outside changed to a void, and she found that the stranger that led Adrian and her to the Lab standing over a tired looking Adrian.

_ “While I believe a civil servant like yourself understands the importance of... discretion, my employers are not quite so trusting… and rather than continually subject you to the irresistible human temptation of telling all… we have decided to...convey you to somewhere where you can do no possible harm, and where no harm can come to you. I'm sure you can imagine there are worse alternatives...” _

The scene suddenly changed. It was as if she was suddenly plucked from the VTOL dropped into the middle of space. No longer was she in a VTOL, now she found herself surrounded by bright little twinkles in a vast void. Chara could help but awe at the beautiful view. Everywhere she looked it was all the same. 

Her awe soon turned to confusion as she noticed one of the lights blink out of existence. A few seconds later passed as she stared at where the “star” once was, the one next to it followed suit. Then another, and another. Chara watched as one by one, every star in the void disappeared until there was nothing left, leaving her completely alone.

**_“They consume…”_ **

Chara looked all across the void to find where that voice came from. It was getting on her nerves at this point. Her search turned up no results however as the entity continued to speak.

**_“We could not win… We could not… We…”_ **

“Come out and show yourself already!” Chara all but shouted into the void. 

Not a second after she said this did she saw particles from out of nowhere and converge right in front of her. More and more particles came together into one single mass. After a few moments of watching the mass grow in front of her did Chara suddenly realize what it was. 

It was a Soul, an  _ alien _ Soul.

Chara could feel the Soul as it grew and grew in size. It looked alot like the portal that Adrian came out of when he entered the Underground, with only a few slight differences that weren't worth mentioning. The particles suddenly stopped appearing, and before Chara could even raise an eyebrow, the Soul let out a blinding light.

When Chara opened her eyes, she found one of the most disgusting things she’s ever seen in her life. 

Twice the height of the average person, the thing looked like a worm, if a worm had two front claw-like legs that allowed its upper body to stand. It’s skin was reminiscent of a brain, with four eyestalks spread around the top portion of its body. Sharp teeth hung loosely from its body as skin peeled away from it.

The thing brought it’s two front “legs” forward and dragged its body towards her, causing Chara to take a step back.

“What are you?”

**_“I am the last… I am the last…”_ ** The same voice from the Ruins answered.

“What do you want from me?” She was tired of playing these bullshit games with the creature. 

**_“You are a key… You are a key… You are…”_ **

Before she could respond and tell the thing to go fuck itself, her mind was assualted by an image that showed the outline of multiply different people. One of the outlines was covered in some type of bulky armor that she thought she recognized. The other had a more feminie appearance, while the one next to her was much obviously male. She saw what looked like Adrian in the image as well, if the outline of the gas mask was any indication. However, it was the last one that gave her pause, for it was completely visible to her.

She saw herself.

The image in her head quickly left, leaving a small headache in its place. She glanced back at the creature in front of her.

**_“You will all set us free.”_ **

The ghost didn’t respond.

**_“My time draws near… I come, to impart to you a gift that will see us all free from our bounds.”_ **

The ghost snickered. “Sorry to disappoint,  _ alien _ , but in case you haven’t noticed, I’m not really alive. So I don’t think I’ll be emancipating anyone anytime soon.

The creature didn’t respond. Instead, it brought up it’s two arms and put them together, earning a confused stare from the phantom. Suddenly, a small portal appeared between its arms, illuminating the two in green. A second afterwards, the portal disappeared. The creature put it’s arm back down as Chara stood there flabbergasted.

In front of the creature, stood a red cartoonish heart. A Soul she realized. A human Soul. But as she looked at it a bit longer did the feeling of familiarity well inside her. It was at that moment did she realize what it was.

It wasn’t just any human Soul that the thing was giving her.

It was  _ her  _ Soul.

“How?  _ How? _ ”

**_“My Gift… My last Gift… My time is now… Know this, Chara Dreemurr._ **

Chara took a step back in shock.

**_“Beware… For HE watches… Now go… Now go… Now!!!”_ **

The Soul,  _ her Soul _ , flew away from the creature and slammed right into her, causing her to scream in pain as her Soul returned its host. After a few seconds however, the pain was gone, and before she knew it, she was back in the surprisingly cold laboratory.

_ ‘Wait. Why am I cold?” _

Revaluating the situation, Chara did indeed feel cold. Which is impossible since she is dead after all. Any environment wouldn’t have any effect on her phantom form. Another oddity was the fact that she actually felt heavy, instead of the usual weightlessness she’s used to. Questions kept adding up as she took in her surroundings, but those were all pushed aside as she saw Adrian lying on the ground. 

  
  


She quickly made her way over to the downed marine, and kneeled down next to him. Sparky and Spitball were still clung around his arm protectively she noticed, but she quickly discarded that detail. Wanting to see if the marine was okay, the fallen human tried to shove Adrian to see if that would stir him. As she was shoving however, she  _ felt _ the fabric of his clothes touch her hand. Again, that was strange. 

All thought processes stopped however as she looked into the lense of the marine’s gas mask. The weight of everything came back to her as she continued to look.

For she saw her own reflection.

“I’m alive?” She whispered in awe. “How?”

Then she remembered. 

Her Soul

How could she be so stupid. That alien worm returned her Soul.

A groan could be heard coming from the soldier on the ground. She ignored it however as she stared down at her hand. Tears ran down her face as she realized the implications of the situation. She’s alive, she thought to herself over and over again. She was so engrossed by the sudden revelation that she didn’t even notice Adrian getting up until he put his hand on her shoulder.

Adrian felt like he just got hit head on by a speeding train as he got up. But as he got up and noticed Chara crying by him, he quickly got himself up and put a hand on the ghost to get her attention. He brought it back however as he felt her shoulder. Normally she’s always room dead cold, even in Hotland, so it was quick the shock to actually  _ feel _ her. He also was prepared for Chara to suddenly throw herself onto him and embrace him in the most heartfelt hug he’s ever received.

“Chara?” 

He didn’t get an answer, but he didn’t need one, because for some reason, Chara was  _ alive. _

“Adrian…” Her voice was a whisper in his ear, which sent chills down his spin. “Take off your helmet.” Doing as the ghost, or  _ human _ asked. The soldier awkwardly took off his helmet and respirator. Chara stared into his eyes as he looked back at her, still unsure of what the hell happened, and is happening. Before he could even ask a question however was interrupted.

By Chara smacking her lips into his.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait. I was originally going to make an SFM for this chapter but I gave up on it. I'm also getting back to writing very soon. Hope you enjoyed.


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